Zaka stories have been essential to justifying Israel’s all-out war against Gaza, which has killed around 30,000 Palestinians in less than five months. Speaking at the United Nations in December, Zaka deputy commander Simcha Greiniman broke down while describing alleged atrocities. He later told the same stories to a meeting of British parliamentarians.
Even when Western media outlets have questioned Landau, the inquiries were half-hearted. The Times asked Landau “about reports, attributed to him, that children had been beheaded on Oct. 7.” It reported: “Mr. Landau denied making the claim, though he acknowledged sometimes misspeaking in the immediate aftermath of the attack. What he saw himself, he said, was a small, burned body with at least part of the head missing, perhaps severed by the force of a blast. It was unclear, he added, if it was the body of teenager or someone younger.”
While the Times said the statements had been “attributed” to Landau, there is no dispute he said them. He told the stories on camera, and the clips were posted widely online. He told CNN he found “a body, of a 14, 15-year-old. Head chopped off. We were looking around for the head. Couldn’t find it.” On India’s Republic TV, Landau said of beheaded children, “Yes, this occurred. This happened.” He made similar comments to Channel 14 Israel and CBS News. There is no evidence Hamas beheaded children or babies. As The Intercept reported at the time, the Israeli military said it couldn’t confirm the claims just four days after the attack.
Media outlets, including Israeli television news programs, have debunked numerous stories about dead babies, calling them “fictional.”
Hey quick update, new article dropped from The Intercept about this.
https://theintercept.com/2024/02/28/new-york-times-anat-schwartz-october-7/
Again, the article does not claim that no rapes occurred:
It argues that the NYT violated its editorial standards, which is an entirely different question.
It also tries to cast doubt on Cohen’s eyewitness account, but I find it unpersuasive. First it points out that Cohen said “The terrorists, people from Gaza, raped girls” but only described one incident. Big deal. This was not a deposition. People often generalize, especially about shocking things. People say things like “Putin kills his political opponents” and “Trump rapes women” even if they only know about Navalny and Carroll.
It also points out that Cohen’s companion saw a woman stabbed whereas Cohen saw a woman raped and stabbed. Again, unpersuasive. They weren’t shooting a documentary, they were hiding. It’s entirely possible they saw different parts of an event, or even different women. If you read eyewitness accounts of the Parkland shooting you will find that not everyone mentions the exact same details, but that certainly doesn’t mean they are liars.
If I claim you raped someone, I have to provide evidence. I can’t say “prove to me that you didn’t rape someone”
The article claims that there is no evidence for any rapes occurring. Which means that it did not occur.
If mass rape had really occurred then it should be really easy to find a single piece of evidence.
Eyewitness accounts are evidence.
In fact for rape prosecutions, they are often the only evidence.
This is true. Which is why the Palestinians women that were raped by the IDF were actually raped by the IDF.
The problem is that after so many false israeli “eyewitnesses” it’s rather difficult to take one of them who was not even involved in the huge false investigation by NYT where they turned over every rock to find made up rape fanfics seriously.
Who are the “false eyewitnesses”?
Your article only mentioned one eyewitness, Raz Cohen. Everyone else interviewed for the article was not actually there on 10/7.
Two of those are not eyewitnesses, they arrived after the attack.
And why is “Sapir” untrustworthy? We know Israelis were beheaded on 10/7, there is even video footage.
No women were beheaded on Oct7. Only two men were mutilated. Which means Sapir’s claims were false. The amount of heads is also impossible as three is more than two.
I have clicked on your link but it’s just footage of some people talking