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“Untrue” – AP investigation refutes allegations of sexual abuse on October 7

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An AP investigation debunks false sexual abuse allegations. (Photo: Screenshot)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Three months later, ZAKA admitted that Otmazgin’s interpretation was wrong and that the teenager’s pants had fallen down at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

An investigation published by Associated Press on Wednesday exposed false and fabricated Israeli allegations of sexual violence by Palestinian resistance fighters during the Al-Aqsa flood operation on October 7, 2023.

After the events of October 7, Israel’s standard protocol for such attacks is said to have broken down “due to the scale of the attack,” the report said.

AP examined statements from two volunteers from ZAKA, an Israeli nongovernmental ultra-Orthodox organization tasked with recovering bodies.

The investigation found that they had misled the world into believing that Hamas fighters had sexually harassed Israeli women on October 7.

“Interpreting Sexual Abuse”

AP highlighted the testimony of Chaim Otmazgin, a ZAKA volunteer, whose testimony was based on an “interpretation” of sexual abuse rather than concrete evidence.

He found the body of an Israeli teenager with her pants pulled down below her waist. Therefore, “he thought this was evidence of sexual violence,” the report said.

Otmazgin told reporters what he saw and even “tearfully recounted the details during a nationally televised appearance at the Israeli parliament,” according to the AP.

“But it turned out that what Otmazgin thought had happened in the kibbutz house had not happened,” the report concluded.

“It’s not that I made up a story,” Otmazgin reportedly said in an interview with AP.

“I couldn’t think of any other option (other than sexual assault – PC). In the end it turned out differently, so I corrected myself,” Otmazgin was quoted as saying.

Three months later, ZAKA admitted that Otmazgin’s interpretation was wrong and that the teenager’s pants had fallen down at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

“After checking with military contacts, ZAKA found that a group of soldiers had dragged the girl’s body around the room to ensure it was free of booby traps. During the procedure, her pants had fallen down,” AP reported.

“Some reports from that day, such as Otmazgin’s, turned out to be untrue,” AP said.

Source only

Another statement came from Yossi Landau, who claimed to have seen a pregnant woman with the fetus still attached but outside her body.

Landau reportedly called Otmazgin at the scene, but Otmazgin denied this.

“Instead he saw the body of a burly woman and an unidentifiable guy connected to a power cable. Everything was charred,” the report said.

Still, “Landau told the story to journalists and was quoted in media outlets around the world,” according to the AP.

Landau was also the only source who claimed to have seen beheaded children and babies.

“Landau and other first responders told reporters he saw decapitated children and babies,” AP reported, adding:

“No convincing evidence has been published to support this claim, and it has been refuted by Haaretz and other major media outlets.”

“Criticism and concerns” – Journalism professors call on NYT to review controversial report on sexual violence

Video questions NYT report

Last March, The New York Times revealed that new video footage cast doubt on the account of an unnamed Israeli military medic the newspaper interviewed who claimed that two teenagers killed in the October 7 resistance operation were sexually abused been.

The medic from an Israeli commando unit was interviewed, along with dozens of other people, for an article published by the US newspaper on December 28 entitled “‘Screams without words’: How Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon on October 7.”

He claimed that the bodies of two partially clothed teenagers in a house on Kibbutz Be’eri showed “traces of sexual violence,” the newspaper said on Monday.

However, footage from an Israeli soldier in Be’eri on October 7 shows “the bodies of three female victims, fully clothed and with no apparent signs of sexual violence, in a house where many residents believed the attacks had taken place.” took place.”

The newspaper said that while it was “unclear” whether the paramedic was referring to the same crime scene, residents of the kibbutz said in response to the new footage that there was no other house in Be’eri where the two teenagers were had been killed.

Exposed by Palestine Chronicle – Co-author of NYT report on sexual assaults exposed (VIDEO)

“And they concluded from the video that the girls had not been sexually abused,” said the New York Times.

Additionally, Nili Bar Sinai, a member of a kibbutz group that investigated claims of sexual assault at the house, was quoted as saying, “This story is false.”

The New York Times also started one Investigation to an Israeli freelancer, Anat Schwartz, one of the co-authors of the original report.

The news appeared last month after a report by Mondoweiss revealed Schwartz’ Online recordingwhich was reportedly reviewed by independent researchers.

Mondoweiss expressed doubts about the credibility of the Israeli filmmaker.

Hamas: A slap in the face

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas called on world leaders to apologize after AP debunked sexual assault allegations on October 7.

In a statement released Wednesday, the movement said the AP report was “a new slap in the face to those spreading these baseless allegations.”

“These claims were used to demonize the resistance and cover up the resistance’s humane behavior towards Zionist prisoners during their detention in Gaza,” the statement continued.

“This report and many other reports from global media and human rights organizations that have refuted these allegations and proven them to be mere lies and exposed fabrications call on President Biden and other officials in some European countries to apologize and stop repeating these false accusations against the resistance and the Palestinian people.”

Hamas also called for “Mrs. Pramila Patten, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, to reassess and review her report accusing the Palestinian resistance of committing sexual violence after relying on Zionist narratives that were proven to be unfounded, without conducting a professional investigation into these false allegations.”

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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