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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.
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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday
US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
The post Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
The post Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
The post Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg first appeared on Algemeiner.com.