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Why Is the Media Trying to Erase the Murder of This Israeli Civilian By Claiming He Was a Mossad Agent?
A drone view shows Palestinians and terrorists gathering around Red Cross vehicles on the day Hamas hands over the bodies of deceased Israeli hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
When Israel briefly delayed the release of a convicted Palestinian murderer last month, Reuters sought to tug at our heartstrings — not because the victim’s family would soon be seeing the killer escape justice, but because the prisoner’s mother had hoped for a quicker release (“Gaza’s mother’s hopes for return of long-jailed son dashed”).
It was an odd subject for a human-interest story. The prisoner, Diaa El Agha, had brutally murdered an Israeli, hacking him to death with a pick axe. Readers, though, were invited to await his release along with his mother.
But that isn’t the only odd bit in the story. On four separate occasions, Reuters’ English-language article describes the victim as a Mossad intelligence officer.
It happened first in the opening line of the news agency’s summary, embedded at the very top of the story: “Son jailed for killing Israeli Mossad officer.”
It then happened twice more in consecutive paragraphs, attached to the two buried and brief references to the crime in paragraphs nine and 10:
Diaa El Agha was imprisoned in 1992, aged 17, for killing an officer of the Israeli spy agency Mossad.
On his family’s website a newspaper report shows a picture of an Israeli soldier holding up the pickaxe used to kill the Mossad agent.
And it happened a fourth time in a narrated video Reuters embeds above the story: “Diaa was 17 when he was imprisoned in 1992 for killing an officer of the Israeli spy agency Mossad.”
The Arabic version of the same story, too, twice misidentifies the victim as a Mossad officer.
But Amatzia Ben-Haim, the victim whose name is absent from the story, was not a Mossad agent.
In his listing on Israel’s National Insurance’s web site, which is dedicated to civilian victims of terror attacks, Ben-Haim is memorialized as a father of three and a husband, who had his years of military service and his time in reserve duty with the Sayeret Matkal elite commando unit. When he moved on to civilian life, he worked for his kibbutz’s factory programming irrigation systems for farmers. He was murdered in the line of civilian duty, while diagnosing a broken irrigation system in a greenhouse.
An account of the murder later appearing in The Times of Israel detailed the incident:
Amatzia would go to these farms, install the systems, and often go back to maintain them or to troubleshoot them if needed. Some of these farms were in the Gaza Strip, prior to the Israeli evacuation of all farms and settlements in Gaza.
It was on one of these trips that Amatzia was helping one such farmer in the Gaza strip, focused entirely on an irrigation line that may have been clogged, or a computer lead that may have malfunctioned. He did not pay attention to the young teen working nearby with a hoe, weeding the furrows. It was to be Amatzia’s last day on earth, as the teen brought the hoe down on Amatzia’s head, killing him instantly, widowing Amatzia’s wife, and orphaning his children. The teen, wishing to become a member of Hamas, was told to “kill a Jew” as the required initiation into the murderous terrorist organization.
On what basis does Reuters characterize the civilian victim as a Mossad officer? The piece doesn’t say. It’s just a fact, stated again, and again, and again — and in case readers missed it, yet again.
For what purpose? Seeming, to conceal the fact that the Diaa El Agha murdered a civilian, so that readers are more inclined to sympathize with the subject of the story, his impatient mother.
It might seem surprising that a serious news organization, whose commitment to “unbiased and reliable news” is promised at the bottom of each story, would rewrite a civilian victim as an active intelligence officer. Then again, it might not. On Jan. 30, CBS News falsely described 29-year-old hostage Arbel Yahoud as a soldier, though she was a civilian. The piece was corrected after CAMERA notified CBS of the error. Two weeks later, on Feb. 16, The Los Angeles Times falsely claimed that most of the remaining hostages in Gaza were soldiers. After CAMERA informed the paper that the overwhelming majority were in fact civilians, it eventually corrected the error once members of the public weighed in as well.
CAMERA has called on Reuters to likewise correct its errors. Stay tuned for any developments.
With research by Tamar Sternthal and CAMERA Arabic.
Gilead Ini is a Senior Research Analyst at CAMERA, the foremost media watchdog organization focused on coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Hat tip: Tablet Magazine.
The post Why Is the Media Trying to Erase the Murder of This Israeli Civilian By Claiming He Was a Mossad Agent? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.