The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) could not confirm a horrifying accusation that Hamas decapitated babies during a weekend attack, a representative for the military told The Intercept on Tuesday.
The assertion gained popularity and became a salient feature of a tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Israelis.
“Women, children, toddlers, and elderly were brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action and we are we are [sic] aware of the heinous acts Hamas is capable of,” the spokesperson wrote in response to questions from The Intercept about the viral reports. “We cannot confirm it officially, but you can assume it happened and believe the report,” she reiterated in a follow-up phone call.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesperson Tal Heinrich reiterated the news on Wednesday despite the IDF's inability to verify it, providing a glimpse into how unsubstantiated reports come to be recorded in history.
The claim about beheaded babies is the most recent in a string of horrifying tales that have surfaced in recent days as Israeli soldiers retook control of towns attacked by Hamas.
Reports of Hamas crimes against civilians inflamed anger among the people, political officials, and policymakers as Israeli authorities vowed retaliation and launched a massive bombing campaign over 2 million Palestinians living in the confined Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden said, “I never really thought that I would see…have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” only for the White House to later clarify that the president had not seen such photos and was making his remarks on Heinrich’s comments and media reports.
Modern warfare has adopted the practice of spreading false information at the same rate as reliable news, which has been made worse over the past year by Twitter's (now X) change under Elon Musk's ownership.
Musk's modifications to the platform's verification criteria have made it more difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction, making it even more crucial for journalists and public officials to verify the material before repeating it. The platform was once a key source for breaking news.
The effects of the quickly growing rhetoric are all too real and lethal as unverified reports are presented alongside authentic, equally horrifying ones.
“It’s been about four days since this incredible and tragic escalation of violence and the level of misinformation — even disinformation — seems near unprecedented,” media critic Sana Saeed told The Intercept. “We have seen journalists, in particular, spread unverified information that is being used to justify Israeli and even American calls and actions to annihilate an entire population.”
The accusation that newborns had been decapitated originated with reporters who visited the town of Kfar Aza on Tuesday, the scene of a horrifying Hamas slaughter of civilians.
The claim soon went viral online and was echoed by well-known journalists and officials. The assertion, which they ascribed to soldiers who found the victims' remains, was among the first to be reported by reporters for the Israeli TV network i24NEWS.
The IDF declined to confirm the claim, according to a story published on Tuesday by the Turkish news agency Anadolu. Later, the IDF informed other media sources that it would not corroborate the claims because it was "disrespectful for the dead."