Israel Is Manufacturing False Stories Of Hamas Killing Gazans

Written by Robert Inlakesh

Claims have continually surfaced in Israeli media outlets about alleged killings of civilians in Gaza who were collecting aid and even the theft of aid by what they call "Hamas police". Not only are these claims false, the pro-Israel Western mainstream media have refrained from even repeating the allegations.

Reviving the narrative that Hamas linked gunmen have been killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza, a recent post has resurfaced from mid-February, which claims that "Hamas police" shot dead a teenager named Muhammad al-Araja near the Egyptian border crossing in the Rafah area of Gaza. The claim appeared to first have emerged from a Hebrew media reporter, named Sapir Lipkin, who posted a video on X (formerly Twitter), showing unrest at the Egyptian border and claimed the following: "Riots at the Rafah crossing: a Palestinian boy tried to take humanitarian aid from the trucks along with many others - was shot dead, apparently by Hamas police officers".

From there, outlets like The Times of Israel and Yediot Aharanot (Ynet), published stories claiming that Hamas police were responsible for the shooting. While The Times of Israel directly linked its story to the X post, it could give no details beyond the claim that a Hamas police officer shot a teenager, for whom they could not even provide an age. They stated that "Arabic media" reported on the incident, yet, a google search in Arabic and using reverse image to locate where the photograph they used for the boy originated, shows Israeli media and Zionists sharing it, while a limited series of results can be found from actual Arabic media websites.

An Arabic facebook page entitled "Free Qalqilia", that posts false stories about Hamas, shared that the boy was 14 years old and had died from border force fire. In terms of the "Arabic media" websites, only a news outlet called Ahwaz News ran a full story on the incident, in which they state that a boy named Ahmad Saleh Mohammad al-Arja was killed under "mysterious circumstances" and even described the incident as an "accident". This media outlet is marginal in its readership and is an anti-Iranian government outlet that covers stories pertaining to Iran's Arab minority.

As for Western mainstream media, they didn't report on the alleged Hamas killing of a Palestinian teenager at all. For reference, media outlets like Reuters even report on statements published by outlets linked with Hamas, such as when a website recently quoted sources within the Palestinian movement that threatened Gazans who collaborate with Israel's invading army. It is safe to say that whenever there is an instance where Hamas can be painted in a bad light, Western corporate media takes charge and adopts Israel's official line on the issue. As for the Israeli military themselves, no comment was made publicly in this case.

The Ynet report on this issue stated that "a Hamas border control official" denied the allegations being spread on social media, stating that there is "no truth" to the rumors and noted that there was a group of displaced people who set tires on fire and had attacked aid trucks. However, the article still attempts to portray the incident, for which they have no specific details, as a clear cut case of Hamas shooting a child dead. The Israeli Ynet reporter, who also wrote another story about a child allegedly being shot dead in the exact same way in December, linked to that story, for which there is also no proof that Hamas was involved.

Interestingly, the story from December was also said to have taken place in Rafah and caused riots from a large local "clan" against Hamas, which is the exact same narrative as is being pushed with the more recent claim. That story was also never followed up on and there was no video or photos of that incident either, only out of context protest footage, and no mainstream media picked up the allegations.

On another note, the idea that Hamas has been shooting at Palestinian civilians who are attempting to retrieve vital aid, and that the resistance group is stealing, or hindering the flow of aid, has never been substantiated and even been refuted by US officials. Furthermore, Hamas police forces do not go near aid trucks and cannot even participate in managing the retrieval of humanitarian aid -- this is because the Israeli military has threatened to bomb them if they are involved. So, for the safety of those retrieving the aid and those driving the trucks, Hamas has stayed away and this lack of security has resulted in groups of starving civilians attacking trucks and even fighting each other for bags of flour. Israel has even fired upon aid convoys, since as early as November.

Not a single claim of Hamas killing or inflicting massacres against Gazan civilians has been substantiated by any trusted international organization or government outside of the Israeli regime itself. As for the Israeli army, the most well known case (since October 7th) of their soldiers firing indiscriminately upon starving Palestinians who were waiting to receive food aid, was the infamous Flour Massacre. The attack resulted in the killing of 118 Palestinians and the injury of over 700, in Gaza City. Not only did the Israeli military lie about this incident and offer at least three discredited narratives, along with a video that was debunked by BBC, but the incident was only one of many.

The Flour Massacre is also an example of the fact that even in northern Gaza the "Hamas police forces" -- who are volunteers at this point and are not in any way affiliated with the armed wing of Hamas but work as cops for their official governing force (run by Hamas) -- were nowhere to be seen. Why were there no Hamas police force officers present during the Flour Massacre you may ask? Because the only security forces that are permitted to be present without being bombed are Israeli army forces. Even the videos released by the Israeli military themselves reveal (despite their best efforts to obfuscate it digitally) that they were not just present, but surrounding the aid with tanks and military presence. 

As recently as last week, a United Nations report revealed that employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were coerced, under conditions of torture, to falsely admit links between themselves and Hamas. The claims regarding alleged involvement of UNRWA employees in the October 7 attacks, that led to Western nations withdrawing their funds from the very UN agency set up to aid Palestinian refugees, have now fallen apart following expose's by the likes of Channel 4 News, which demonstrated that Israel's dossier of "evidence" was actually absent of any evidence of its allegations.

Consistently throughout the war on Gaza, the Israeli media, government, army, intelligence agencies, and civil society organizations have worked together with pro-Israel personalities on social media, to peddle all kinds of absurd lies about Hamas stealing aid and killing civilians in Gaza. Some of Israel's more well known lies, like the "40 beheaded babies" and "infants cut out of mothers wombs" hoax's are now established as being simply atrocity propaganda, but at one point they were peddled by Western corporate media and even US President Joe Biden.

Israel even claims that it doesn't block aid from reaching Gaza, which is a blatant fallacy, yet it attempts to argue this through pointing to the limited number of aid trucks they have allowed to enter, with the back up argument being that Hamas is stealing the aid. In order to make this propaganda work for some uneducated audiences, stories like those mentioned above must be peddled in an attempt to make their points seem valid. This is why we see these sloppily put together stories, devoid of any specific details and often accompanied by irrelevant video clips, regularly published by Israeli media outlets, and often not even touched by Western media.

English language Israeli media often peddle stories which attempt to paint a scenario under which Israel is actually trying to help Gaza's population. In the case of TBN Israel, they even released a video report in which the presenter claims that most Gazans prefer to be ruled by Israel -- over Hamas -- and that Palestinian civilians in Gaza are forming militias to defend themselves from Hamas. This claim, regarding militias and committees being set up to "defend" against Hamas, are being peddled throughout Israeli media, yet no such mythical militias or committees exist, nor have they ever existed. Such allegations are the equivalent to us here at The Last American Vagabond running stories on Israeli space bunnies using laser beam technology to resist against Netanyahu's government, as magical as it sounds, and no matter how many times its repeated, it won't make it true.

(This was published on TLAV as well, which I do not normally do, but this felt especially important to draw attention to. Thank you for your support. - Ryan Cristián)