Pro-U.S.-Israeli October 7 propaganda unravels

Day after day, hundreds of news articles and video pieces in the U.S. corporate media include at least a paragraph justifying Israeli bombing. That paragraph restates that Israel is responding to the “unprovoked” October 7 attack that killed 1,200 Israelis. 

The media repeat that paragraph to justify the massive destruction in Gaza, the more than 20,000 Palestinian deaths and the nonstop raids and kidnappings in the West Bank. This media effort is unraveling.  

Repeating again and again that October 7 was the start of and the reason for the Israeli assault rips out the history of decades of the Israeli army’s bombing, displacement, sanctions and past massacres of Palestinians.

Beyond that, the very charge of 1,200 deaths by resistance forces is now being increasingly challenged. Evidence is seeping out exposing that the Israeli army was frantic and used massive firepower, which caused many of the 1,200 Israeli deaths on October 7. 

Even in the Israeli media some of the Israeli regime’s more blatant lies and justifications are being questioned. These stories are translated from Hebrew and reported in Palestinian Resistance media and alternative news investigative sites, including Electronic Intifada, The Cradle, The GrayZone and Mondoweiss.

The largest daily English-language Israeli news source, Ynet, quoted an Israeli military source that one-fifth of Israeli army deaths in Gaza are due to “friendly fire” incidents or accidents. The military also admitted that an “immense and complex quantity” of “friendly fire” incidents had taken place on October 7. (Ynetnews.com, Dec. 12) 

An earlier Ynet article dated Nov. 19 reported that both the Palestine Authority and Hamas have released statements stating that “Israeli helicopters” caused the deaths of at least 350 participants at the Nova music festival. Hamas joined a statement saying that an Israeli fighter jet bombed the area near the Gaza border, leading to the deaths of hundreds of people..  

A Dec. 5 Electronic Intifada article linked to an interview with Israeli Air Force Colonel Nof Erez who admitted on a Haaretz podcast in Hebrew that Israeli airstrikes blew up Israeli homes in the settlements. Colonel Erez also said that October 7 was a “mass Hannibal” event, and they had drilled similar scenarios for 20 years. (Partial interview with English subtitles is posted with the Electronic Intifada article.) (tinyurl.com/3mszdss2)

The “Hannibal option” means firing to kill hostages and enemy fighters rather than allowing the enemy to take hostages, and it is a normal Israeli tactic. The homes of settlers in the Kibbutz Be’eri were blown up, even if occupied by Israelis, if the military suspected Palestinians might also be hiding inside. 

Israeli missiles incinerate cars  

An Electronic Intifada article dated Dec. 12  titled “Israel admits to ‘immense’ amount of ‘friendly fire’ on 7 October” linked to the drone footage released by the Israeli military that exposes the extent of the destruction of cars fleeing the Supernova rave on October 7. (tinyurl.com/4eujwy86) 

Hundreds of cars fleeing the area were incinerated by Israeli drones and helicopters. RT News broadcast the footage of piles of burned cars.  (RT/Israeli military)

The Nov. 22 Jerusalem Post reported that cars containing the blood stains or ashes of Israelis who died on October 7 would be crushed and — in what the paper said was a first — buried in a cemetery or a burial pit.

The decision to compact, then shred and bury the burned cars gives a religious pretext for covering up the truth: that the burned cars were hit by missiles. It prevents any forensic evidence or inquiry into the deaths. 

Rising demands for inquiry and negotiations

On Dec. 12, representatives of some 200 Israeli families who lost family members at the Supernova and Psyduck rave parties on Oct. 7 announced the formation of a group to charge the government with mishandling, negligence and a cover-up. The forum is demanding the immediate establishment of an independent committee of inquiry. 

Then three Israeli soldiers who had been held hostage emerged shirtless and waving white flags from a building with “Rescue 3 hostages SOS” written on it. The three were killed by Israeli troops in an apparent panic.  

Abu Obeida, spokesperson for Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, explained in early November that 60 of the hostages have died in Israeli bombings, 23 of them buried under rubble. The Palestinians offered to return the bodies for burial but received no response.  

The Israeli bombings are so intense that entire extended Palestinian families have been wiped out. Some families have lost more than 100 members, covering four generations.

On Dec. 18, Hamas released a video of three elderly hostages urging immediate negotiations. “I am here with a group of very old people, all with prior medical conditions, who are suffering here in very hard conditions,” one hostage said in the video. (abcnews.go.com, Dec. 18)

Scores of protesters set up tents outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv saying they would stay until the government resumed hostage negotiations. Demonstrations demanding immediate negotiations grew to thousands according to Al Jazeera and many other media.