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Israeli Hostages Were Brutally Executed; The Media Told the World That They ‘Died’
Rachel Goldberg-Polin delivering a eulogy at her son’s funeral in Jerusalem on Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Taken by author
There’s not much worse than waking up to the news that six Israeli hostages had been murdered by their Hamas captors just days before their bodies were found by the IDF.
And yet, some media outlets tried to paint their vicious murders as “deaths.” Deaths — as if they passively died of natural causes.
On Sunday, senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq blamed the six hostages’ “deaths” on Israel’s inability to agree to a ceasefire, and the United States’ continued support of “the war of genocide,” based on its “bias” for Israel. He then proceeded to claim they were killed by an Israeli airstrike.
An official autopsy revealed; however, that all six were murdered with several gunshot wounds to the head and other parts of the body just 48 hours prior.
Sure enough, a Hamas announcement on Monday officially declared that hostage guards were instructed on “how to handle” their captives if the IDF comes close to finding or rescuing them. The instructions were put in place after the June 8 rescue mission which brought back four hostages alive from captivity in Nuseirat.
This psychological warfare tactic should make the very real threat obvious.
But of course, just as mainstream media outlets were quick to latch onto their own diminishing buzz words on Sunday, they are still in use even after Hamas’ new “policy” announcement.
Here are some of the disastrous headlines that HonestReporting and others have picked up since the tragic news broke Sunday morning.
This latest headline from the BBC was published overnight Tuesday.
Further, the first sentence of the article says this:
Benjamin Netanyahu has asked for “forgiveness” from Israelis for failing to return six hostages found dead in Gaza on Saturday, as Hamas warned more could be “returned to their families in shrouds” if a ceasefire isn’t reached.
The word deaths or dead changes everything about how this reads. There have been tens of hostages returned dead, and the outcry has not been quite this loud. Hundreds of thousands of protestors filled Israel’s streets, and the country’s largest labor union called for a complete economic strike. It is not just because more bodies were found.
The context missing in these very crucial first words as well as the headline, is that they were murdered by Hamas just before potential rescue. They were alive, some first on the list slated for release in a potential hostage deal. That is the reason for anguish and anger.
This isn’t a political statement, it is just a specificity in order to help readers understand why this is different, what actually happened to them… and where the outrage stems from.
But coverage of the six hostages’ tragic circumstances began with this:
Hersh “has died,” says @CNN in its opening paragraph.
Readers shouldn’t have to wait until the 11th paragraph to learn that, according to the IDF, he and five other hostages, were brutally murdered by Hamas.https://t.co/bdpkcK59yz pic.twitter.com/pnSKYjF7Mr
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 1, 2024
Unfortunately, CNN chose not to lead with the truth, saying Hersh Goldberg-Polin “has died,” referring to his “death” once more, and then quoting an IDF official statement explaining how he was actually murdered by Hamas terrorists just shortly before he was found.
This despicable delaying of facts is misleading, to say the least.
The same can be said of this embarrassingly mild headline from USA Today:
No, @USATODAY, Hersh didn’t just die. He was murdered. By Hamas terrorists.https://t.co/GtxsvbfybJ pic.twitter.com/hEkaZDa60j
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 1, 2024
Did Hersh die peacefully in his sleep or after a long battle with an illness? This headline suggests it.
But alas, he was murdered. By who, we may ask? You would not know the context just from scrolling by the headline on the site’s front page.
Say it: Hersh was brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after 11 months of captivity.
The article also says that 1,200 Israelis died during the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Does this word have a different connotation than we think?
The IDF and Hostages Families Forum are quoted halfway down the article to clarify it was indeed murder. But why not lead with that?
Despite The New York Times backtracking on this headline below, their initial response was to misquote US President Joe Biden:
President Biden specifically referred to “the hostages killed by these vicious Hamas terrorists.”
Hersh and the others were murdered. But @nytimes even distorts the President’s words to avoid saying it.https://t.co/EJddU57KIh pic.twitter.com/cPljzKZE7R
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 1, 2024
Biden actually said this: “We have now confirmed that one of the hostages killed by these vicious Hamas terrorists was an American citizen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin.” [emphasis added]
There was more.
These CBS and NBC articles not only minimized the circumstances of the hostages’ death in their headlines, but they both misquoted and then completely omitted this part of Biden’s statement completely:
It’s a shame that the media can’t just be accurate. It’s not a complicated story. So why make it so, by playing word games and pushing agendas?
The Campaign to Absolve Hamas on Social Media
Meanwhile, on social media, anti-Israel figures like Muhammad Shehada of Euro-Med Monitor NGO also used mounting domestic Israeli frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a weapon to amplify Hamas’ denial of responsibility and put it all on Israel for not closing a hostage and ceasefire deal.
It’s important to note that regardless of Netanyahu’s political narrative, this doesn’t diminish Hamas’ responsibility for committing murder and for starting this war in the first place.
Israeli media is near unanimously blaming Netanyahu & Israel’s gov for the death of the six hostages whose bodies were found yesterday & who were alive until very recently
Israeli media admits: Netanyahu is the one refusing the deal
Why is none of that being reported in the US? pic.twitter.com/rA94esdVKu
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) September 1, 2024
That there is currently political turmoil within Israel over policies concerning the fate of the hostages and the desire of some to pursue continuing military pressure on Hamas is the product of a democratic society still traumatized and trying to come to grips with the impossible dilemmas inherent in this appalling situation.
Compare and contrast with the Palestinian arena, where Hamas never gave its own people any choice when it embarked upon its October 7 massacre, knowing full well that the consequences would be enormous.
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 Israeli Hostages Were Brutally Executed; The Media Told the World That They ‘Died’ 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.