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Meta Restores Photo of Hamas Hostages After Initially Removing It as ‘Dangerous’ Content
An undated picture of (from left) Liri Albag, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, and Karina Ariev held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, that was made public by their families on July 16, 2024. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum
Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta on Tuesday removed an Instagram post by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum that featured a newly released picture of female soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who were kidnapped as hostages by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.
The undated image, published for the first time on Tuesday with permission from the families of the hostages, shows Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, and Daniella Gilboa sitting on mattresses on the floor of a room. The women appear injured and bruised, and Ariev and Gilboa both appear to have bandages on their heads. A picture of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is framed behind them.
Another photo released on Tuesday features fellow hostage and IDF soldier Naama Levy with a swollen eye and cuts on her face. The photos were taken during the first few days of their captivity, and the five women are among the approximately 120 hostages still held in Hamas captivity since Oct. 7.
Hamas kidnapped the five women from the Nahal Oz military base during the terrorist organization’s deadly rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7, during which they killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 others. Hamas killed 52 soldiers at the Nahal Oz base, including 15 female surveillance officers, and kidnapped 10 soldiers in total.
Meta removed the photo of four of the hostages from the Instagram page of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and cited “dangerous individuals and organizations” as the reason for the removal. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum shared a screenshot of Meta’s message on its Instagram Story and wrote in response, “Really?”
Photo: Screenshot
Meta’s policy on “dangerous organizations or individuals” states: “In an effort to prevent and disrupt real-world harm, we do not allow organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on our platforms.”
However, the photo of the hostages was soon restored to Instagram, and Meta’s Vice President of Communications Maayan Sarig explained the mixup.
“This case differs from our policy on removing hostage content produced by Hamas,” Sarig said in a statement cited by Israel Hayom. “The image of the captive female field observer soldiers doesn’t violate our policy because it wasn’t produced or published by Hamas. The IDF found it, and the hostages’ families distributed it as proof of life and to raise awareness. We will restore the image to accounts where it was removed.”
The photos of the hostages publicized on Tuesday were taken from a Hamas video obtained by the IDF during its military operations in the Gaza Strip. The images were first shown to the families of the hostages by the IDF a few months prior.
The post Meta Restores Photo of Hamas Hostages After Initially Removing It as ‘Dangerous’ Content first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.