IOF video pokes more holes in Israeli claims of sexual assault
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The medic's story that was prominently featured in foreign news broadcasts depicting sexual violence continues to be refuted even by Israelis themselves.
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Palestinian Resistance fighters drive a captured Israeli military vehicle in Gaza City on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP/Hatem Moussa)
A new video has emerged that contradicts the narrative of Israeli occupation medics who claimed that two teens killed on October 7 were sexually assaulted, The New York Times reported.
The anonymous paramedic from an Israeli commando unit was one of hundreds of persons questioned for The New York Times' Dec. 28 piece about sexual abuse on October 7. He claimed to have discovered the remains of two partially dressed adolescent females in a residence in Kibbutz "Be'eri', which allegedly displayed evidence of sexual assault.
The Associated Press, CNN, and The Washington Post all reported identical experiences, citing an anonymous IOF paramedic.
However, footage taken by a member of the IOF in "Be'eri" on Oct. 7, which was examined by community members in February and the Times this month, shows 3 females fully clothed with no obvious signs of sexual violence.
Residents stated that no other residence in "Be'eri" had two adolescent females dead, and the video showed that the girls had not been subject to sexual violence.
Nili Bar Sinai, a kibbutz member who investigated reports of sexual assault, stated, "This story is false."
BREAKING: The New York Times just published a piece definitively debunking their own "mass rape" hoax they let Adam Sella, Anat Schwartz and Jeffrey Gettleman fabricate, and still officially stand by. This is absolute insanity. They're defending a piece they themselves debunked pic.twitter.com/Tfdlt4vlXi
— ☀️👀 (@zei_squirrel) March 25, 2024
When contacted by The Times, the physician declined to say if he still supported his claims.
Later, an Israeli military spokesperson stated that the doctor stuck by his statement but may have misremembered where he saw the adolescent females.
The medic's story was prominently featured in foreign news broadcasts depicting sexual violence, vividly describing the gruesome details he claims he saw. The video observed by kibbutz members clearly contradicts his accounts.
The IOF had permitted the paramedic to talk with reporters on the condition that his identity not be revealed, allegedly because he works in an elite unit.
Other versions of the story, particularly those of emergency service volunteers who talked publicly about the event, led many community people to think that the adolescent sisters were victims of sexual abuse.
A neighbor settler, Amir Solvy, expressed that “until recently, we all thought it was true."
Last month, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israeli police are finding paramount difficulty locating and finding any Israeli settlers who were victims of sexual assaults or witnesses of such acts allegedly committed by the Palestinian Resistance during the October 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Early this month, the Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas rejected and strongly deplored allegations made by Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) of the United Nations (UN) Pramila Patten, whose envoy found that "sexual violence occurred on 7 October."
SRSG Patten's team "found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing against those still held in captivity," putting such actions in the context of the Resistance's Operations Al-Aqsa Flood, which took the Israeli military by surprise.
However, the statement issued by the office of SRSG on Sexual Violence does admit that the information they were able to access was "circumstantial", adding that they were unable to interview any of the alleged victims of sexual abuse during the visit.
The mission was even able to confirm that several claims of sexual violence in the Gaza Envelope were "unfounded".
'It's not true': 'Be'eri' kibbutz spox on sexual abuse claims on Oct.7
The spokesperson for the Kibbutz "Be’eri" also discredited the allegations made by the NYT.
Two out of the three victims mentioned in NYT's marquee exposé, which alleged that Hamas had deliberately weaponized sexual violence during the October 7 attacks, were not, in fact, victims of sexual assault, according to the Kibbutz's spokesperson.
The rejection by spokesperson Michal Paikin undermines even more the NYT's credibility of its article: “‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7," in which it described the recounts of three alleged victims of sexual assault for whom it gave specific biographical information.
Two of three women have been said to not be victims.
The spokesperson discredited the very intricate and graphic details of the Israeli paramedic who was noted as the source for the allegations, not only in the NYT story but also in The Washington Post, CNN, and other media outlets.
