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Uncovering the Story Behind the Gazan ‘Mass Graves’
Palestinian fighters from the armed wing of Hamas take part in a military parade to mark the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel, near the border in the central Gaza Strip, July 19, 2023. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Over the past week, Palestinian teams have been unearthing mass graves outside two Gaza medical complexes, Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces who were conducting counter-terrorism operations in the area.
With the opening of these graves, social media and some traditional news outlets have been abuzz with claims that these graves are evidence of mass killings of Palestinians by Israelis, and that some of those found inside the graves show signs of being tortured and killed execution-style with their hands tied behind their backs.
However, much like other sensationalist news stories about Israel’s conduct during its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, the story of the mass graves being propounded online and by some media outlets is a mixture of deception, falsehoods, and a reliance on biased sources.
The mass grave lie is being promoted by Hamas and its Western propagandists to distract attention from the fact that Gaza hospitals have been proven, time and again, to host terrorists and terror activity.
Hospital directors have admitted as much.
Why isn’t that being reported? https://t.co/jHDVxBkjcQ pic.twitter.com/K5xoSnQuXX
— Avi Mayer אבי מאיר (@AviMayer) April 24, 2024
What Is the Story Behind the Mass Graves?
Much of the news regarding the mass graves has surrounded the exhumation of hundreds of bodies on the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
However, unlike what is being claimed, these mass graves were not dug by Israeli forces during their months-long siege and battle against Hamas terrorists operating within the medical complex.
Rather, these graves were dug by Palestinians prior to the arrival of the Israeli military in mid-February 2024.
Analysts have observed that these mass graves which are now being unearthed were documented as first being dug and used in late January and early February 2024 to bury people who had died in the hospital and could not be transported to a formal cemetery for internment.
As the battle between Israel and Hamas intensified around the medical complex, it is possible that newer bodies (of those who had been killed during the firefight or who had died at the hospital during the battle) were added to these mass graves. However, as noted by The Times of Israel, it is uncharacteristic for the IDF to “tend to the bodies of slain Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
Thus, if newer bodies were added to these mass graves over the course of the IDF’s operations in the area, it is likely that they were buried by Palestinians and not by Israelis.
1/5 Geolocation | Disproof of Palestinian lies about Nasser Hospital mass graves.
Fake claims by @tamerqdh about #IDF-caused massacre.
In Jan/Feb, this exact place was used by palestinians as temporary cemetry.
I found a burial video of 30+ persons on 28 January. >> https://t.co/l8UMI95NWA pic.twitter.com/k7Dnlo0RqV
— Middle East Buka (@MiddleEastBuka) April 22, 2024
Alongside the false claims that Israel had dug these mass graves, representatives of Hamas in Gaza and the Hamas-affiliated Civil Defense have claimed that Israel dug up graves in the Nasser Hospital complex and then re-buried the deceased in these mass graves.
However, according to the IDF, while Israeli forces did exhume certain graves in order to determine whether dead Israeli hostages had been buried by Hamas in these graves, they did not desecrate the graves nor remove identifying markers.
After it had been determined that no hostages were buried on the grounds, the exhumed bodies were re-interred in their burial locations “in an orderly and proper manner.”
The deceitful claim that the IDF buried Palestinians in mass graves, not based whatsoever on facts, is wrong.
See full statement: pic.twitter.com/WX7aVx8M1h
— LTC (S.) Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) April 23, 2024
A third claim that has been put forth about these mass graves is that some of the exhumed bodies have had their hands tied, allegedly proof for Israeli extrajudicial executions of Palestinians in the area.
However, there are several factors that call into question these allegations: No evidence has been provided for these claims, with only unverified reports alleging the existence of these bodies with their hands tied. These claims are not being put forward by impartial observers but by Hamas and its Gaza-based affiliates. If these bodies do exist, there is no evidence that Israel is responsible for their being bound.
Despite the lack of concrete evidence for the existence of these handcuffed corpses, even by a UN representative’s own admission, this has not stopped the UN from portraying their existence as solid fact, even headlining one of its releases “Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights office.”
This unabashed reliance on Hamas reports has helped give these stories an air of legitimacy despite their being propounded by an internationally-recognized terror organization.
How Has the Media Covered the Mass Graves?
As the story of the mass graves continues to develop, media organizations have covered this story with varying levels of nuance and accuracy.
Predictably, Al Jazeera’s coverage was most in line with Hamas’ propaganda, uncritically parroting statements by the Civil Defense in Gaza as well as international leaders responding to the reports released by Hamas.
Only one paragraph is granted to the IDF’s denial that it had dug mass graves, and at no point is it stated as fact that these mass graves had been dug prior to the Israeli operation at Nasser Hospital.
In their reports, both Reuters and CNN provided fairly nuanced coverage, giving ample space to the IDF’s statements refuting the allegations against it, and admitting that some of the charges put forward by the Palestinians could not be substantiated.
However, in its coverage of the mass graves, the Associated Press provided a far less objective report, only including the IDF’s rebuttal seven paragraphs in, ignoring the fact that the reports on the mass graves were being released by a Hamas-affiliated body, and using the term “could not be independently verified” for Israel’s allegations but not those put forward by the Civil Defense or international bodies.
Thus, despite the unsubstantiated and biased information being released by the Civil Defense, AP treated it as fact while calling into question Israel’s response to these baseless allegations.
In its report on the mass graves, The Times presented the allegations of bodies with bound hands as established fact by quoting UN officials, despite the fact that these officials were basing themselves on Hamas reports and there was no physical evidence to corroborate these claims.
This is an appalling segment from @amanpour
It repeatedly cites the Gaza Civil Defense (that’s a fancy way of saying Hamas) and fails to mention that Hamas hid Israeli hostages in Gaza hospitals.
The IDF acknowledged that it examined bodies buried near Nasser Hospital when they… https://t.co/rmqTYOibUh
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 24, 2024
While the mainstream media coverage of the mass graves has featured various levels of nuance and objectivity, social media has served as a source for the most extreme takes on this subject, with many uncritically parroting Hamas’ claims and using them as a cudgel with which to harm Israel’s reputation and the IDF’s integrity.
If you’re more mad about the college campus protests against mass graves than against the mass graves themselves you should probably take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror.
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 25, 2024
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Uncovering the Story Behind the Gazan ‘Mass Graves’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly

US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis

Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.