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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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Rubio Heads to Israel Amid Tensions Among US Middle East Allies
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to members of the media, before departing for Israel at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, September 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool
US President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio headed to Israel on Saturday, amid tensions with fellow US allies in the Middle East over Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar and expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
Speaking to reporters before departure, Rubio reiterated that the US and President Donald Trump were not happy about the strikes.
Rubio said the US relationship with Israel would not be affected, but that he would discuss with the Israelis how the strike would affect Trump’s desire to secure the return of all the hostages held by Hamas, get rid of the terrorists and end the Gaza war.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them. We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” he said.
“There are still 48 hostages that deserve to be released immediately, all at once. And there is still the hard work ahead once this ends, of rebuilding Gaza in a way that provides people the quality of life that they all want.”
Rubio said it had yet to be determined who would do that, who would pay for it and who would be in charge of the process.
After Israel, Rubio is due to join Trump’s planned visit to Britain next week.
Hamas still holds 48 hostages, and Qatar has been one of the mediators, along with the US, trying to secure a ceasefire deal that would include the captives’ release.
On Tuesday, Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an airstrike on Doha. US officials described it as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests.
The strike on the territory of a close US ally sparked broad condemnation from other Arab states and derailed ceasefire and hostage talks brokered by Qatar.
On Friday, Rubio met with Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at the White House, underscoring competing interests in the region that Rubio will seek to balance on his trip. Later that day, US President Donald Trump held dinner with the prime minister in New York.
Rubio’s trip comes ahead of high-level meetings at the United Nations in New York later this month. Countries including France and Britain are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood, a move opposed by Israel.
Washington says such recognition would bolster Hamas and Rubio has suggested the move could spur the annexation of the West Bank sought by hardline members of the Israeli government.
ON Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state. Last week, the United Arab Emirates warned that this would cross a red line and undermine the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords that normalized UAE-Israel relations in 2020.
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Netanyahu Posts Message Appearing to Confirm Hamas Leaders Survived Doha Strike
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a statement posted to social media on Saturday evening, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the Qatar-based leadership of Hamas, reiterating that the jihadist group had to regard for the lives of Gazans and represented an obstacle to ending the war and releasing the Israelis it held hostage.
The wording of Netanyahu’s message appeared to confirm that the strike targeting the Hamas leaders in Doha was not crowned with success.
“The Hamas terrorists chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza,” wrote Netanyahu. “They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war.” He added that “Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.”
Israel is yet to officially comment on the result of the strike, which has incurred widespread international criticism.
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Trump Hosts Qatari Prime Minister After Israeli Attack in Doha
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
US President Donald Trump held dinner with the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday, days after US ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an attack in Qatar on Tuesday, a strike that risked derailing US-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge.
Trump expressed annoyance about the strike in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sought to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not happen again.
Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were joined by a top Trump adviser, US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, said on X.
The White House confirmed the dinner had taken place but offered no details.
The session followed an hour-long meeting that al-Thani had at the White House on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A source briefed on the meeting said they discussed Qatar’s future as a mediator in the region and defense cooperation in the wake of the Israeli strikes against Hamas in Doha.
Trump said he was unhappy with Israel’s strike, which he described as a unilateral action that did not advance US or Israeli interests.
Washington counts Qatar as a strong Gulf ally. Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and for a post-conflict plan for the territory.
Al-Thani blamed Israel on Tuesday for trying to sabotage chances for peace but said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator.