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CBS Falsely Reported That Biden Warned Israel Against Rafah Operation
An UNRWA aid truck at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
On the Feb. 10 CBS Saturday Morning News broadcast, correspondent Deborah Patta falsely reported that the United States warned Israel against attacking Rafah, Hamas’ remaining stronghold in the south of the Gaza Strip.
In reality, the Americans warned Israel not to carry out an attack that did not take into account the more than one million Palestinians sheltering there. Contrary to CBS’ reporting, the American warning did not rule out an Israeli operation.
In her error-ridden reporting, Patta claimed:
Palestinians who fled to Rafah are bracing themselves for an Israeli military advance. National Security spokesman John Kirby has said this would be a disaster. … It’s been 126 days of war, one of the deadliest in modern history, almost 28,000 dead, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, nearly half of them are children. Utter misery everywhere you look. Prompting President Biden’s strongest rebuke of Israel yet, calling its conduct in Gaza “over the top.”
[President Biden]: A lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it’s got to stop.
Reporter: But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stubbornly refuses to listen, instead ordering his military to evacuate civilians in Rafah ahead of a massive push there.
In his press briefing, Kirby did not call a potential Israeli military advance into Rafah a “disaster.” He called an Israeli military advance with no plans to safeguard civilians sheltering there a disaster. Here’s what he actually said:
I think you all know more than a million Palestinians are — are sheltering in and around Rafah. That’s where they were told to go. There’s a lot of displaced people there. And the Israeli military has a special obligation as they conduct operations there or anywhere else to make sure that they’re factoring in protection for — for innocent civilian life, particularly, you know, the civilians that were — were pushed into southern Gaza by operations further north — Khan Younis and North Gaza.
I could tell you that — absent any full consideration of protecting civilians at that scale in Gaza — military operations right now would be a disaster for those people, and it’s not something that we would support. [emphasis added]
Nor has President Biden warned Israel not to operate in Rafah. One day after Patta’s report falsely claiming a sweeping US warning against attacking Rafah, it was widely reported that President Biden warned Prime Minister Netanyahu to implement a strong plan to protect civilians before launching operations in Rafah. As Reuters reported (“Biden urged Israel’s Netanyahu to protect civilians in Gaza – White House“):
U.S. President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel should not launch a military operation in Rafah without a credible plan to ensure the safety of the roughly 1 million people sheltering there, the White House said. …
Biden also emphasized his view that “a military operation in Rafah just really cannot proceed without a credible and implementable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than 1 million people that are now sheltering there,” the official said, adding that they simply had “nowhere to go.” [Emphasis added.]
Thus, far from “stubbornly refus[ing] to listen” to his American interlocutors, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was attentively listening when he ordered the military to devise a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah.
Furthermore, contrary to Patta’s reporting, Netanyahu did not order “his military to evacuate civilians in Rafah ahead of a massive push there.” Rather, as was widely reported, he ordered the military to develop an evacuation plan.
Patta didn’t need to read The New York Times (“Netanyahu Orders Evacuation Plan…“) or CNN (“Netanyahu directs Israeli military to draw up plan to evacuate…”) for information on Netanyahu’s orders for an evacuation plan. CBS Morning Show host Jeff Glor himself accurately reported in the introduction to Patta’s very own segment (10 seconds in): “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military forces to submit an evacuation plan for Rafah.”
Further pushing the erroneous reporting that the Israeli military has already issued evacuation orders, Patta claimed:
Our team in Gaza tells us that the Israeli military has given people several options, move to an already overcrowded part of Rafah, go to Khan Younis, which is still being bombed, or return to the north, which has been all but obliterated.
Finally, Patta’s assertion that Israel’s war with Hamas “is one of the deadliest in modern history,” with 28,000 reported dead, is patently false. (She fails to identify the figure’s source as Hamas, the designated terror organization that carried out one of the worse mass atrocities targeting civilians in recent memory on October 7.)
Israel’s current war with Hamas is hardly the deadliest in recent history even within the Middle East; Syria’s war saw 470,000 fatalities; 150,000 died in Yemen’s Yemen’s war; another 150,000 perished in Lebanon’s civil war; 500,000 lives were lost in the Iraq’s war with Iran; and 150,000 Iraqis died during the Gulf War. But those facts clearly did not matter to CBS or its reporter.
Tamar Sternthal is the director of CAMERA’s Israel Office. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website. This article was written with research by CAMERA Arabic.
The post CBS Falsely Reported That Biden Warned Israel Against Rafah Operation first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Reportedly Shares Intelligence with New Syrian Leadership to Counter ISIS Threats
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, waits to welcome the senior Ukrainian delegation led by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
i24 News – The United States has begun sharing classified intelligence with Syria’s new leadership, led by Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group formerly designated as a terrorist organization, reports the Washington Post.
This unexpected collaboration comes in the wake of HTS overthrowing the Assad regime last month and reflects heightened US concerns about a potential resurgence of the Islamic State (ISIS).
According to sources, US intelligence recently helped thwart a planned ISIS attack on a prominent Shiite shrine near Damascus.
Despite this cooperation, US officials stress that the intelligence-sharing arrangement does not signify full support for HTS, which has a controversial history of extremism.
HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, previously known by his militant alias Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has made efforts to project a more moderate image, pledging to protect Syria’s religious minorities and stabilize the country.
However, skepticism remains about HTS’s ability to govern effectively and sustain efforts against ISIS.
The Biden administration, before leaving office, maintained HTS’s terrorist designation while easing sanctions on Syria to facilitate humanitarian aid. As the new US administration under President Donald Trump takes shape, questions loom about the future of American involvement in Syria and the ongoing military presence aimed at preventing an ISIS comeback.
The post US Reportedly Shares Intelligence with New Syrian Leadership to Counter ISIS Threats first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hostages Missing from Hamas’ Release List
A birthday cake for Kfir Bibas, who is a hostage in Hamas captivity. Thursday, January 18, 2024. (Photo: Debbie Weiss)
i24 News – The second phase of hostage releases between Israel and Hamas has sparked deep frustration and grief among the families of those still held captive.
Two hostages—Arbel Yahud and Agam Berger—were notably excluded from the list of those to be freed on Saturday, despite earlier agreements prioritizing the return of civilians.
Arbel Yahud, 29, and Agam Berger, 20, both captives since the October 7 attack, were not included in the list of four hostages expected to be released.
Yahud, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, was taken along with her partner, Ariel Cunio, whose family was freed in November. Yahud’s brother, Dolev, was later found dead in June after he was killed while trying to aid the wounded. Agam Berger, from Holon, was captured while stationed at Nahal Oz. Her family identified her in a video released by Hamas, showing her in pajamas being taken away in a vehicle after she called her father to alert him of the gunfire.
The omission of these two hostages has led to heightened concerns and calls for action from Israeli authorities, who are now exerting pressure on Hamas and mediators to honor the terms of the release agreement. Israeli officials reaffirmed their commitment to continue with the broader agreement, but warned that the failure to meet the agreed terms could harm future releases.
Adding to the grief, the Bibas family expressed their devastation when they learned that Shiri Bibas and her children, who were abducted from their Nir Oz home on October 7, were also absent from the second release list. In a heartfelt message shared on Saturday, the Bibas family shared their anguish: “Even though we were prepared for it, we were hoping to see Shiri and the children on the list that was supposed to be the civilian list.” The family voiced concerns over their loved one’s safety and questioned why, despite grave fears for their lives, their relatives were not included among the civilians due to be returned.
The Bibas family’s message emphasized their belief that the public must continue to demand answers, adding, “Thank you, dear supporters, for not giving up, for continuing to pray, to hope and to demand answers.
The post Hostages Missing from Hamas’ Release List first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Naama Levi, and Daniela Gilboa Return to Israel After 477 Days of Captivity
A combination picture shows Israeli hostages Karina Ariev, Naama Levy, Liri Albag, and Daniela Gilboa, soldiers who were seized from their army base in southern Israel during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, in these undated handout pictures. Photo: Courtesy of Bring Them Home Now/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – After 477 harrowing days in captivity, four young Israeli women—Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Naama Levi, and Daniela Gilboa—have finally returned home.
The release took place Saturday morning in Gaza’s Palestine Square, under a carefully staged scene orchestrated by Hamas.
The four women, who served in a military observation unit in Nahal Oz, were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Before their release, they were made to wear uniforms provided by Hamas and were paraded on a platform in front of a crowd of activists. Forced to smile and wave, the women endured the ordeal under the watchful eyes of Hamas fighters.
Once the formalities concluded, the women walked to waiting ICRC vehicles, accompanied by representatives of the organization. Upon reaching Israeli forces, IDF medical teams immediately conducted examinations. At the meeting point, the first female officers who greeted them informed the women that their families were watching live. Overcome with emotion, the former hostages smiled at the cameras, sending heartfelt gestures to their loved ones.
Footage later released by the IDF captured a poignant moment: the four women removing the uniforms given to them by Hamas and embracing Israeli officers. These emotional scenes underscored the end of a long and grueling chapter in their lives.
The women were transported to the Reim reception center, where their families eagerly awaited them. After 477 days of separation, the reunions were deeply moving, marking a moment of relief and joy.
However, the release was not without complications. A fifth military observer, Agam Berger, remains in captivity, and Hamas failed to uphold its agreement to release civilian hostage Arbel Yahud, who was originally included in the liberation group. The breach of terms has drawn widespread condemnation, intensifying efforts to secure the release of those who remain captive.
This momentous event brings a mix of celebration and determination, as Israel continues to work tirelessly for the freedom of all hostages still held in Gaza.
The post Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Naama Levi, and Daniela Gilboa Return to Israel After 477 Days of Captivity first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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