An alleged war crime attributed to Hamas by Israel has been exposed as a fake by journalist Max Blumenthal, editor of Grayzone News, who first debunked the Israeli government’s claims by tracing back the evidence to a Japanese website dated May 2023.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry published a photograph showing the aftermath of the rape, brutal murder and mutilation of a woman, presenting it as a heinous act committed by Hamas militants during the 7 October attacks.
Following a detailed examination of the image, Blumenthal discovered that Israeli allegations of a war crime allegedly committed by Hamas militants were a misrepresentation.
The photo, which claimed to show the body of a festival-goer who had been the victim of rape of by Hamas militants, was found to pre-date the 7 October attacks. Further investigation led to the discovery of the original image on a Japanese website, where it had been published in May 2023 under the heading, “beautiful Kurdish soldiers killed on the battlefield”.
The juxtaposition of the original photograph from the Japanese website against the one released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry reveals striking similarities, undermining the authenticity of the latter.
Further research by the journalist unearthed yet another, still earlier use of the same photograph, in March 2022. In this case the caption was, “Ukraine female soldier?” though the addition of a question mark to the end of the caption implies that even then the origins were uncertain.
Following these findings that very obviously challenge the veracity of the Israeli government’s claims, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has deleted the photo from the website where it publishes the footage of the Hamas atrocities.