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Haaretz Falsely Claimed Netanyahu Was Open to Deporting Gaza Residents; He’s Not
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: ABIR SULTAN POOL/Pool via REUTERS
CAMERA’s Israel office prompted the correction of a report in Haaretz‘s English edition, which falsely claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the deportation of Gaza residents is under consideration.
The bogus Jan. 3 news item, which supplied false fodder to unfounded accusations of Israeli crimes (“Netanyahu: Considering scenario of surrender and deportation of Gaza residents“), fallaciously reported:
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a “scenario of surrender and deportation” of the Gaza Strip residents is being considered, according to reports on the Israel news channel 12.
In recordings from Netanyahu’s meeting with the families of the Israeli hostages that took place on Tuesday, the prime minister was heard saying, “We are not rejecting that possibility. There are claims to be made for and against it.”
But as Barak Ravid of Axios, and a former Haaretz journalist, rightly pointed out, Netanyahu did not say the deportation of Gaza residents is under consideration. Ravid correctly tweeted:
Indeed, Kan’s (Hebrew) report confirmed Ravid’s information that Netanyahu was commenting on the possibility of deporting Hamas’ leadership — not the territory’s civilian population.
Kan reported (“Netanyahu on the deportation of senior Hamas figures: There are discussions about this possibility,” CAMERA’s translation):
In a meeting today (Tuesday) between the prime minister and families of the hostages, Netanyahu responded to a question from one of the family members about the matter of deporting the Hamas leadership: “There are discussions about this possibility.”
Israeli (Hebrew) sites Mako and Ynet also reported that Netanyahu’s comment about the possibility of deportation was in reference to Hamas leadership, and not Gaza residents, as Haaretz had falsely wrote.
As Haaretz has repeatedly reported in recent days, the South African charge of Israeli genocide at the International Court of Justice must prove intentionality, which is established by the statement of Israeli leaders.
Chen Maanit wrote in Haaretz Jan. 4:
Proof of actions that constitute genocide in the ICJ requires two main elements – first, showing an intention to cause mass physical destruction, and second, showing that there is a causal connection between the actions on the ground and the intention.According to South Africa, the intention is learned from statements by senior Israeli officials. . . [Emphasis added.]
Thus, Haaretz‘s false reporting that the prime minister said the deportation of Gaza residents is under consideration provided tailwind for South Africa’s baseless accusation. Sadly, members of the gIsraeli overnment who fortunately have no say on Gaza policy have made statements in favor of deportation. But the claim that the prime minister made such comments is invention.
In response to communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, Haaretz editors deleted the false claim that Netanyahu was speaking about the deportation of Hamas residents. The amended headline no longer refers to “residents” but still fails to specify deportation of Hamas leadership: “Netanyahu: Considering scenario of surrender and deportation in Gaza.”
The revised accompanying text now states:
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a “scenario of surrender and deportation” in the Gaza Strip is being considered, according to reports on the Israeli news channel 12. The prime minister was most likely referring to Hamas leaders.
The “most likely” qualification is unjustified, given that the recording of the meeting with the hostages’ families revealed for a fact that the prime minister’s statement about the possibility of deportation was in response to a question referring specifically to Hamas leadership.
Separately, intentionally or not, Haaretz gives an additional boost to false charges of Israeli war crimes with Gideon Levy’s uncorrected report egregiously alleging Israel’s “killing of 162 infants in one day — a figure reported by social media this week.” Despite the fact that CAMERA informed Haaretz that Levy himself has admitted that he has zero source for this incendiary claim, editors have yet to retract his fabrication.
Tamar Sternthal is the director of CAMERA’s Israel Office. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website.
The post Haaretz Falsely Claimed Netanyahu Was Open to Deporting Gaza Residents; He’s Not first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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