From the Editors 22 February 2024
Israel claims that Hamas or other Palestinian fighters killed 1,200 Israelis on 7 October, but as our reporting since that day shows, a significant, though as yet undetermined, number were killed by Israeli forces using tank shells and helicopter gunships.
These killings were due to a combination of panicked indiscriminate fire and application of the Hannibal doctrine, an Israeli military procedure that allows its forces to prevent the capture of Israelis by any means, even if that means killing them.
The video above, by the YouTube channel GDF, neatly summarizes much of The Electronic Intifada’s reporting in just over 12 minutes.
“Looking into friendly fire incidents on 7 October can make people targets for slander and misrepresentation. They can easily be described as conspiracy theorists and the like,” the narrator states, adding “one of the very few if not the only outlet that has continuously covered the topic is The Electronic Intifada.”
“By merely updating its readership on the known facts of friendly fire incidents over the course of 7 October and afterward they have been targeted with at least one attack article from The Washington Post where they were lumped in with right-wing Holocaust deniers, saying they exaggerated claims,” the narrator says.
Indeed, in January, The Electronic Intifada was the target of a scurrilous smear by that prominent American newspaper, an attack that has done nothing to deter us from pursuing the truth.
New incident revealed
Almost all the information about so-called friendly fire incidents on 7 October comes from Israeli sources and media, and yet this is rarely reported in mainstream Western outlets, which continue to stick closely to Israel’s official propaganda narratives.
But even in the Israeli media, the information has trickled out slowly. Seemingly each week, a new piece of evidence comes out.
Indeed on Thursday, Haaretz revealed yet another such incident.
The Israeli newspaper reports that an Israeli man escaped from the Supernova rave – where Israeli forces had fired on civilians – only to be fatally shot when he reached what he thought would be the safety of Kibbutz Alumim, a nearby colonial settlement.
“Ofek Atun and his girlfriend Tamar fled the Nova outdoor rave by car as rockets started flying overhead. The couple drove north until security personnel from a nearby community directed them to Kibbutz Alumim,” Haaretz reports.
At the kibbutz, the couple “frantically banged on doors before storming into the home of an elderly couple who were taking shelter inside their safe room. Thinking that terrorists had just broken into their home, the homeowners called the kibbutz’s volunteer security squad for help.”
“As Ofek and Tamar were hiding inside the house, the security squad arrived, accompanied by a kibbutz resident soldier, and discreetly evacuated the elderly couple through the safe room window,” the account states. “The soldier then entered the house through the window with a pistol in hand, while a security squad member provided cover through the window.”
“According to a member of the community security squad, Atun and the soldier got into a fight, and the soldier shot Atun many times, mistaking him for a terrorist,” Haaretz says. “According to Tamar, Ofek was shot dead without any prior struggle.”
Tamar was herself then shot in the stomach by Israeli soldiers, but lived to tell the tale.
Would this story have come out if she had been killed, or would there have been another attempted cover up – similar to the failed effort to hide how Israeli forces shelled a home killing a number of Israeli civilians at Kibbutz Be’eri?
In December, the Israeli military admitted to an “immense and complex quantity” of friendly fire incidents on 7 October, but is refusing to investigate them, claiming that to do so would not be “morally sound.”
Comments
Savages
Permalink Marilyn Shepherd replied on
Australian politicians were exposed today being complicit with the Israeli ambassador into what they should say and how they should vote, we ended up being actively involved in the genocide
What are some reputable
Permalink Ghost replied on
What are some reputable Australian reporting outlets, I can think of Middle East Eye Australia section of course, any recommendations?
evidence of rape and killing of children by HAMAS
Permalink Rachid Tala replied on
I am Chilean-Syrian, a fervent defender of the Palestinian cause. I want to know if there is credible evidence of rapes of women and murders of children and other atrocities that the pro-Zionist press widely endorses. Thank you
UN Resolution/ 2-State Solution a myth
Permalink Darshini replied on
UN Resolution for a 2-State Solution does not work. For instance in Nablus one street was Palestine, and the next street was Israel. Neither side could venture into the other but we managed a Palestinian driver. Also stop using the word twrrorist that is a loaded term with no heuristic value. And focus on the polite term Islamaphobia that has been replaced by anti-semetism also by advocates of Palestine. I worked for several UN agencies and the UN only use the term rebels. Other bilateral aid agencies including those of the USG refer to each group by their name. It is only their Governments that call people terrorists, excluding their own.
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