Monday marks the one-year anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led incursion into Israel – which became the deadliest single day in the Jewish State’s history, and the harbinger of the deadliest year for Palestinians since 1948.
Capitalizing on compassion from much of the world amid reports of unspeakable barbarity by Hamas during the attack, Tel Aviv began to rapidly squander these sympathetic attitudes as it became clear that many of the initial claims made by its government and Israel’s allies simply weren’t true. Here are the most egregious examples:
Attack's Death Toll: Who Killed Who?
Some 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed in the October 7 violence, among them 815 civilians. 251 others were taken hostage and shipped off to Gaza as bargaining chips. The initial surprise over the attack, and the extent of the casualties for the nation of 9.5 million led to October 7 being dubbed ‘Israel’s 9/11’, with media reporting on the widespread summary execution of civilians, IDF soldiers and reservists by Hamas to highlight the militants’ barbarity.
However, subsequent investigations, including a probe by the Israeli army cited by Israeli media in June revealed “multiple incidents” of Israeli troops “firing on our own forces on October 7-9.”
The same month, a UN report revealed that at least 14 Israeli civilians were likely killed intentionally by their own side on October 7 as the IDF implemented the so-called Hannibal Directive – a controversial order instructing military personnel to liquidate their own comrades to prevent them from being captured.
In April, Israel’s military acknowledged publicly that one hostage was killed by Israeli helicopter fire on October 7 during a Hamas attempt to take her hostage.
Separately, an investigation by Haaretz in July based on testimony of officers and soldiers found that the Hannibal Directive had been implemented, and that a Hermes 450 strike drone was dispatched to carry it out, with troops instructed “to not let any vehicles return to Gaza,” and to turn the border fence “into a killing zone.” That report revealed that the IDF attacked a house in the Be’eri kibbutz near the border using tanks, killing 13 of 14 hostages inside. To this day, Western media has described Be’eri as a “symbol of Hamas’ brutality,” making no mention of the Hannibal Directive.
A similar incident was reported in the city of Sderot, where a Hamas takeover of a local police station ended in the elimination of the militants and Israeli captives inside using tank fire. Israeli troops began demolishing the station the same day the attack took place.
Another Haaretz report from November 2023 citing a police investigation found that an IDF gunship flying out of Ramat David airbase may have killed Israeli civilians at the Supernova music festival in Re’im near the Gaza border, where over 360 people ultimately perished and 40 taken hostage, while firing on Hamas militants. A report by Australia’s ABC News last month corroborated Haaretz’ information in a report indicating that “panicked” Israeli aircrews fired on vehicles containing hostages at the festival.
The apparent indiscriminate violence of Israeli operations appeared to continue well into the ground invasion of Gaza, with the IDF confirming in December 2023 that at least 20 of 105 troops killed in the first two months operations had died from friendly fire and “accidents” related to “weaponry, machinery, trampling” and “firing irregularities.”
Allegations About Beheaded Babies
Among the most concerning crimes alleged to have been perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 was the claim that its fighters beheaded up to 40 beheaded babies during their assault. The allegations – first made by a Netanyahu-friendly news channel citing anonymous soldiers and rescue workers, and amplified by an advisor the prime minister's wife Sara and IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus, who said several days after October 7 that the military could say "with relative confidence" that the crime took place, quickly spread around the world, and continued to make headlines even after other Israeli officials admitted they could not verify the claims. On October 12, Netanyahu's office released gruesome images of children who had apparently died on October 7, but none of them showed signs of having been beheaded.
The beheaded babies claim was parroted by President Joe Biden, who claimed several times after October 7 that he had personally seen and had “confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” echoing similar claims made by a Netanyahu spokesman. White House officials rushed to “clarify” the president’s comments, with NSC spox John Kirby suggesting they were repeated “to underscore the utter depravity and the barbaric nature with which these terrorists murdered and butchered innocent Israeli civilians,” and to ensure that Israel got “the support that they need” from Washington.
In November 2023, a Washington Post report citing officials said the president’s aides had advised him to “cut a line about Hamas beheading babies because those reports were unverified,” but were apparently ignored.
In a deep dive into the allegations this past April, French media pointed to comparisons between the beheaded babies story and the Kuwaiti babies in incubators hoax in the runup to the 1991 Iraq War. The outlet characterized the story as “the rumor at the heart of the information battle between Israel and Hamas,” and indicated, citing the Israeli government’s press office, that no evidence to substantiate the allegations was made available.
Claims of Hamas Weaponization of Sexual Violence
Another widespread claim made by Israeli officials and repeated by Western media and officials after October 7 was the allegation that Hamas fighters systematically raped and mutilated scores of women during their assault.
Israeli officials repeatedly brought up the claims as another sign of Hamas's barbarism, with Prime Minister Netanyahu asking in late 2023 if the international community had chosen to remain silent on Tel Aviv's claims “because we were talking about Jewish women,” and demanding that "all civilized leaders, governments, [and] nations to speak up against this atrocity." President Biden echoed Netanyahu's sentiments, calling the alleged attacks "appalling" and a sign of "unimaginable cruelty."
The story first went mainstream after an explosive December 2023 piece in the New York Times titled “Screams Without Words: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7.” Subsequent investigative reporting by The Grayzone and The Intercept, later corroborated by mainstream outlets, found that there was no evidence to back up the allegations of widespread rape and sexual torture as an element of Hamas's strategy.
Digging into the backgrounds of reporters behind the NYT piece, media discovered that one of them - Anat Schwartz, was a former Israeli Air Force intelligence official with no prior reporting experience. In April 2024, over 50 journalism professors from top US schools signed a joint appeal calling on NYT to address key flaws in its report, from lack of corroboration and supporting evidence of witness testimony, to inconsistencies and contradictions in testimony from reports in other media.
Subsequent investigations by the Associated Press and The Times indicated that there was no evidence to corroborate NYT’s claims of systematic rape. A report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from June 2024 appeared to bring some closure on the matter, indicating after a thorough review of testimony to media and Israeli police that it was “not…able to independently verify” the mass rape and torture claims.
The commission “did not find credible evidence…that militants received orders to commit sexual violence and so was unable to make conclusions on this issue,” and accused Israeli authorities of deliberately “obstructing the commission’s access to information” related to the allegations, including by barring doctors from talking to investigators.