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Israel has amassed some 300,000 troops, armed with tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and artillery, and supported by helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.
Their mission is to secure the perimeter around Gaza to make sure that Hamas fighters are not able to sortie forth and commit atrocities against the citizens of Israel like those that occurred on October 7 and 8. At some point it is estimated that these troops will be ordered into Gaza for the purpose of destroying Hamas as an organization. But the sad fact is that the Israeli Army today is not up to such a mission. It lacks the training and fortitude for a task like that, regardless of outcome, and will cost Israel thousands of lives if seen to fruition. Any Israeli assault on Gaza is doomed to fail before it even begins.
A short look back at the preparedness and training of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) helps underscore the reasoning behind such a bleak assessment. Earlier this year, over the course of two weeks, stretching from late May through early June, the IDF carried out a massive exercise, code named “Firm Hand,” which tested the Israeli capability to wage war on multiple fronts. Like a similar exercise held the year before, code named “Chariots of Fire,” the “Firm Hand” event focused on a major air campaign being waged against Iran, and a major ground war being waged against Hezbollah, in northern Israel/southern Lebanon. Both exercises envisioned that there would be outbreaks of localized violence in the West Bank and along the Gaza Strip that would need to be contained by forces allocated to the Central and Southern military commands, respectively.
The focus of effort for both exercises was the Northern Command, and more specifically, the border with Lebanon. There, beyond the border, were located the forces of Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party which maintained a militia larger, better trained, and better equipped than most armies. Israel fought a 34-day war with Hezbollah in August 2006, pitting a force that had grown to over 30,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, helicopters, and fixed wing aircraft, against a lightly armed unit of around 3,000 fighters.
The war was an unmitigated disaster for the IDF. Hezbollah commanders found that Israeli troops were by and large poorly organized and disciplined, with very little training that was relevant to the rigors of modern war. Israeli tank operators were unfamiliar with tactics relevant to the terrain they were operating in, leaving themselves open to Hezbollah attacks that ended up destroying 20 of Israel’s vaunted Merkava tanks.
Israel has been struggling to overcome the stain of its 2006 defeat at the hands of Hezbollah. In 2016, the IDF embarked on Project Gideon, a five-year plan designed to reconfigure and retrain the Israeli Army so that it would not repeat the mistakes of 2006. When Project Gideon was completed, Israel then embarked on what it called the “Tnufa” (“Momentum”) plan, intended to build on the changes effected under Project Gideon. Part of the Tnufa plan is something called Ground Horizon, a series of technical innovations designed to make Israeli ground forces more effective.
The IDF forces participating in both the Chariots of Fire and Firm Hand exercises had been at the receiving end of the Project Gideon/Tnufa/Ground Horizon changes. Two of the IDF’s premier units, the 91st “Galilee” Division, responsible for defending against Hezbollah from Lebanon, and the 36th Ga’ash (“Golan”) Armored Division, which is responsible for the Syrian border, took the lead in the exercises. They carried out a multidivisional exercise where they conducted combined arms training against a Hezbollah-like foe.
The Central Command and Southern Command practiced several counterterrorism exercises which emphasized the security of residents in Judea and Samaria.
When the Firm Hand exercise was completed, the IDF high command declared it a success.
They had not exercised against an event like the Hamas attacks of October 7-8 of this year.
Urban combat is extraordinarily difficult. It is made even more so when a defender can settle in amongst the rubble of a destroyed city. Ask the Germans at Stalingrad. Ask the French, British, Indians, and Poles who fought at Monte Casino. Ask either the Ukrainians or Russians about Mariupol and Artemovsk (Bakhmut).
The Israeli military today is more comfortable making TikTok videos and posting Instagram photographs than they are in perfecting the skillsets needed to close with and destroy your enemy through firepower and maneuver. This is a military that, with a few exceptions found in the elite reconnaissance units of the IDF, has grown accustomed to a peacetime ritual more akin to the life of a corrections officer than soldier. The IDF has become experts at arresting children, beating up women, and murdering unarmed men.
Digging a competent enemy out of the rubble of a destroyed city, especially when they have prepared and organized for such a battle, is deadly work. The Israeli troops who have been assembled outside of Gaza are not ready for this fight. They are not trained or equipped for this fight. They are not psychologically prepared for this fight.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit China next week personally, his assistant, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters on Wednesday, noting that preparations for his trip are now in full swing.
The exact dates of Putin’s visit have not yet been released, but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted in a press briefing on Wednesday that these dates have been determined and will be published in “a timely manner.” Before traveling to China, the Russian leader will also visit Kyrgyzstan on October 12-13.
Last month, during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Moscow, Putin confirmed that he would be traveling to Beijing on his first foreign trip in 2023.
The Russian president said he was “happy to accept the invitation” from his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, who had invited him to attend the Belt and Road Forum held in Beijing on October 17-18.
According to Hua Chunying, the official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the third international forum will be dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. President Xi will reportedly participate in the forum’s opening ceremony and deliver a keynote speech, after which he will hold a banquet and bilateral events with forum guests. The event will focus on increasing cooperation between countries within the Belt and Road framework.
Last month, China stated that representatives from some 90 countries, including Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, will attend the event.
The Belt and Road Initiative was first floated by Xi Jinping in 2013, with its goal being to foster infrastructure development and investment in Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and elsewhere. More than 150 countries and organizations have joined the project.
Putin's Speech at REW-2023: Russia to Ensure Global Energy Market's Stability for Decades to Come
The major theme of Russian Energy Week-2023 is titled the "New Reality of Global Energy: Creating the Future." President Vladimir Putin outlined his nation's view on the world's most urgent energy issues and ways to overcome emerging crises.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech to the plenary session, the forum's main event, on October 11.
The REW-2023, which is taking place between October 11 and 13, has brought together over 4,000 visitors from more than 60 countries and territories at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall in Moscow.
Russia extended invitations to high-ranking officials such as Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shiaa Sabbar Al-Sudani, Prime Minister of Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Radovan Viskovic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Oil of Iraq Hayyan Abdulghani Abdulzahr Alsawad, and Executive Vice President, Minister of Economy, Finance, and Foreign Trade of Venezuela Delcy Eloina Rodriguez Gomez.
The Russian president's address is timely, given the chaos in the energy markets provoked by Western power games that have particularly backfired on Europe, according to Alex Krainer, founder of Krainer Analytics and creator of I-System Trend Following, who has worked as a market analyst, researcher, trader, and hedge fund manager.
"Without a doubt, we'll have a less reliable supply of more expensive energy, the whole economy will become much weaker and less competitive," Krainer told Sputnik. "In part, the Europeans were too relaxed about jeopardizing their energy security because they imagined they could easily replace Russian supplies with alternatives from Qatar or North Africa. But as it turned out, Qatar can't replace Russian quantities and the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline was meant to traverse Niger, so it is now in jeopardy."
Basic Priority of Russia's Fuel and Energy Complex: Domestic Consumers
Addressing the REW-2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin underscored that several centers of economic development have emerged across the globe, as the world is transiting to a multipolar order. This process provides new opportunities for the Russian fuel and energy complex, according to the Russian president.
"The Russian economy is currently undergoing such a stage of structural transformation. The geography of foreign trade, employment parameters, and the industry picture are changing, and completely new market prospects for small and medium-sized businesses are emerging. The Russian fuel and energy complex is also undergoing profound changes. They affect all areas of work: extraction and processing of energy resources, service and logistics, interaction with foreign partners," Putin told the participants of the Russian Energy Week.
However, Russia's basic priority in the energy sector is currently to ensure supplies to the national market, which has been increasing its energy consumption in recent years.
Per the Russian president, the hike in energy consumption in Russia clearly indicates the positive dynamics of the country's economic growth.
The president touched upon the national gasification program, which has been gaining steam since 2021, with 375,000 households having already been connected to the gas pipeline network out of the planned one million.
In addition to that, Russia is planning to unify its Western and Eastern gas grids and link the Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline to the Sakhalin–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok gas transmission system.
Putin highlighted that the Russian authorities will increase the reliability of energy supply to Russian regions, paying special attention to improving energy efficiency in housing and communal services and transport. He particularly stressed that the Russian government is determined to solve the issue of soaring domestic gasoline prices and ensure the stability and predictability of costs.
"We will consistently improve the reliability of energy supply to the regions. Networks and energy transmission lines must operate clearly, sustainably, and have reserves for the development of territories," Putin said.
Russia Reaching Technological Sovereignty in Energy Field
President Putin emphasized the necessity of reaching full sovereignty in the energy field in terms of technology, personnel, and finances. He referred to the fact that Russia has made considerable progress on that path by developing new sophisticated equipment and technologies, educating energy specialists, and offering new mechanisms for financing and payments.
Since 2014, Russia has developed over 140 types of domestically-made products to ensure independence and uninterrupted operation of the nation's fuel and energy complex. The Russian state’s large-scale contracts for domestic equipment for the fuel and energy sector facilitate this process, according to the president.
Russia's Nuclear Industry Has No Competitors Abroad
Vladimir Putin pointed out that Russia's nuclear industry and Rosatom, as its flagship, is second to none. Currently, the Rosatom state nuclear corporation is simultaneously building a whopping 22 power units abroad, which constitutes 80% of the world's market, per the president.
"The Russian engineering school for the construction and maintenance of nuclear power facilities is not only strong, but has practically no competitors at the global level," Putin told the plenary session of the REW-2023.
Putin referred to Rosatom's Akkuyu project in Turkiye, the Ed-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant in Egypt, and the Rooppur Nuclear Power Station in Bangladesh.
When it comes to Egypt, Russia is not only building nuclear facilities in the country, but is providing services and education, thereby laying the groundwork for the North African state's energy sovereignty, the Russian president emphasized. Per him, this complex approach is one of Rosatom's major competitive advantages.
Russia is not against the participation of third countries in construction of Russian nuclear power plants abroad, the Russian president added.
Russia's Green Hydroelectric Power
Vladimir Putin drew attention to the fact that RusHydro – Russia's largest hydro-generating company – remains one of the world leaders in the field of clean and green hydropower. Russia has built 350 hydro-electric facilities in 54 countries, including in Africa and Latin America.
Building and providing maintenance for hydro-power stations across the world allows Russia to enhance its technological cooperation with foreign states and strengthen interstate economic relations, too, according to the Russian president.
Anti-Russian Sanctions Have Taken Toll on Europe
Having imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, EU member states are trying to completely abandon Russian energy, the Russian president said, adding that these efforts have already brought their economic growth to a zero mark.
"In Europe, we are being led by individuals who are deeply attached to ideological constructs, but have no regard for, or even understanding of the economic costs of their pursuit of such ideological ends," said Alex Krainer. "Well, the costs have been staggering and they'll only keep growing until there's a change of course. Germany has lost an estimated half a million jobs and even Economy Minister Robert Habeck has had to admit that the situation is due to high energy prices, which he said Germany is feeling more because it was used to cheap Russian gas. But as we will soon discover, we will reap a veritable banquet of consequences for winning our freedom from Russian energy dependence, including the collapse of the euro and the breakup of the EU and probably NATO with it.”
Putin noted this year that European economic growth is demonstrating negative dynamics, given that the bloc's industrial sector has long been reliant on Russia's cheap energy commodities. Likewise, the European population is facing negative income growth, according to the Russian president. In contrast, leading Asian nations – China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam – have been outpacing their US and EU peers in terms of their share in global gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), he remarked.
"It's a difficult path in Europe, that's absolutely true," Thierry Bros, professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and a contributor to Natural Gas World, an independent specialized website, told Sputnik. "We went through this last winter, partially because winter was warmer than perhaps what we were expecting. We are going to again have difficulties in the next two winters, as most analysts are thinking, because of the attention on the gas market."
OPEC+ Works to Stabilize Global Energy Market
According to Vladimir Putin, the stability of the global energy market requires the international interaction of major suppliers on open and transparent terms. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus (OPEC+) – a bloc consisting of the 13 OPEC members and 10 non-OPEC oil producers – has proven effective in coping with global energy challenges, according to Vladimir Putin. Russia remains one of the bloc's leading members. The president reminded the audience that the stable energy market is a key to the welfare of global populations.
"Russia, as before, will make a significant contribution to balancing the global energy market, and develop partnerships and cooperative ties with those countries that want and are interested in this," the Russian president said.
He noted that Russia's shift in the deliveries of its energy commodities from the Atlantic to the Asian market is not just a result of the Western sanctions policy, but a response to objective economic trends. While Asia's share in global energy consumption is set to grow from 22% in 2020 to over 30% by 2050, the EU's share is projected to shrink dramatically.
Russia's LNG Industry Growing Fast
It is projected that the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by Russia will grow substantially in the coming decade, according to the president.
"Russia also has ambitious plans in the field of LNG. In the next decade, its production should triple — to 100 million tons per year," Putin told the participants of the REW-2023 forum.
He noted that the LNG industry offers flexibility in supplies and is gaining momentum worldwide with new LNG terminals being built across the world. By 2035, global LNG demand is expected to rise to around 600 million metric tons per year (MTPA).
"Energy production is key to economic development, and Russia's tripling of its LNG production over the next 10 years will be a great positive for the Russian economy as well as the economies of Russia's partners in the region," Krainer remarked, adding that it could potentially "draw the world closer to Russia in diplomatic and political ways as well."
Russia not only has the ability to enhance its share in the global LNG market, but is developing new routes to deliver the commodity, the president noted, referring to Russia's Northern Sea Route (NSR), an ambitious Russian Arctic maritime transport artery running through the waters of Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the far North, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea in the east to the Barents and White Seas in the west.
Furthermore, Putin referred to a number of innovative LNG endeavors, including the Arctic LNG-2 project in Murmansk. The gravity-based structures of the Arctic LNG-2 will minimize the capital cost and the project's footprint in the Arctic zone of Russia. Once completed, it will encompass three liquefaction trains, producing a total of 19.8 million tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG, and up to 1.6 MTPA of stable gas condensate (SGC).
The Russian president pointed to the successful development of Russia's fuel and energy complex, stressing that the nation will continue to making a significant contribution to balancing the global energy market together with its partners.
The annual REW forum has become a key international platform for discussing global energy trends. The event traditionally hosts high-profile political leaders and energy industry heads. This year, the platform features 30 events, divided into thematic blocks: the International Agenda, Sustainable Development and the Climate, Scientific and Technological Development and the Digital Transformation, and the Development of the Fuel and Energy Sector.
Russia always supported establishment of Palestinian state — Putin
Russia has always advocated the implementation of the UN Security Council's decision on the creation of an independent Palestinian state, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the Russian Energy Week.
"We have always supported the implementation of the decisions of the UN Security Council, I mean, first of all, the creation of an independent Palestinian state. This is the root of all problems," Putin pointed out.
He also said that Russia's position on the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict did not emerge as a result of the recent tragic events, but was formed over the past decades. "And this position is well known both to the Israeli side and to our friends in Palestine," the Russian president added.
“Israel has the right to defend itself – today and in the days to come. The European Union stands with Israel,” tweeted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, effectively blessing a carte blanche response by the notoriously measured and restrained Israeli leadership in response to the Hamas attacks.
“Who do you think you are? You’re unelected, and have no authority to determine EU foreign policy, which is set by @EUCouncil,” replied Irish MEP Clare Daly. “Europe does NOT ‘stand with Israel’. We stand for peace. You do not speak for us. If you’ve nothing constructive to say, and you clearly don't, shut up.”
In a single tweet, von der Leyen managed to position all of Europe as more militant than even the editorial staff of one of Israel’s main national newspapers, Haaretz, which placed blame for the attacks squarely on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of “annexation and dispossession” which “openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians.” The implication is that no action occurs in a vacuum absent the risk of sparking a reaction.
The danger of Europe’s unelected Queen Ursula unilaterally launching hypersonic virtue signaling missiles in a knee-jerk emotional response is that it can’t possibly substitute for foreign policy decided in more sobering moments. Yet these days, more often than not, it’s the only kind of foreign policy we get, on everything from Israel to Ukraine.
In yet another example of symbolism getting ahead of policy pragmatism, the EU announced withdrawal of its support for Palestine … before walking back the move just hours later. On Monday, Israel’s defense minister announced that the IDF was going to blockade Gaza even more than usual by preventing any entry of water, food, fuel, and electricity. And just a couple hours later, EU Neighborhood and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said the bloc was joining the cause – by withholding its humanitarian funding for the Palestinian people. Germany and Austria were the first to get the ball rolling on funding withdrawal. However, a few hours later, the EU aid freeze was reversed by the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, after an apparent epiphany that it would only end up “punishing all the Palestinian people” and would have “only further emboldened terrorists.” There’s no way Brussels may have been inadvertently funding those terrorists in the first place, is there?
Brussels has given $2.5 billion in direct budget support to the Palestinian Authority over 12 years from 2008, and recently said it would send some $1.24 billion from 2021 to 2024. The funding wasn’t even reduced or cut off – only held for a few months in 2021-2022, then released without preconditions – when watchdogs alleged that Palestinian school textbooks had anti-Semitic content promoting and glorifying terrorism. And now Israel’s foreign ministry is pointing the finger at Brussels. “The European Union was financing textbooks of the Palestinian authorities that were full of antisemitism and incitement for violence and terrorism against Jews,” Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said earlier this week.
When the issue was first raised, the EU commissioner in charge at the time met with the Israeli foreign minister in Brussels and basically said, look, we’ll just make sure that doesn’t happen again – and passed a resolution to that effect. There were also NGO watchdog reports released earlier this month accusing Brussels of financing grants that ended up in the hands of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the EU considers to be a terrorist group.
It was just earlier this year, back in February, that the EU announced another over $300 million for the Palestinian people in the presence of President Mahmoud Abbas – funding for salaries, pensions, health care, and things like “climate-smart agri business,” and “green competitiveness,” And now, suddenly, Brussels officials appear to be wondering, “Hey wait, did we fund Hamas … maybe?” Because that’s what their actions seem to be suggesting. Otherwise what’s the problem with continuing to help the Palestinian people?
Or maybe, given all the climate-conscious verbiage attached to the aid, the EU just got angry that Hamas’ hang gliders were motorized. You just know that some egghead in Brussels is watching coverage of all the gas guzzling pickup trucks used by Hamas to raid villages and kidnap people and asking, “What’s the carbon footprint on those?”
All the virtue signaling in the world can’t now compensate for a lack of due diligence that the schizophrenic withdrawal and subsequent reinstatement of Palestinian funding suggests. It wouldn’t be the first time that innocent people suffered because of Brussels’ incompetence. Just ask the people of the entire European bloc currently facing seemingly endless economic hardship so their leaders can keep patting themselves on the back for supporting Ukraine.
And just like in Ukraine, Brussels doesn’t seem too interested in availing itself of an opportunity to play any kind of a mitigating or thoughtful role amid this conflict, but is rather taking its usual seat in riding shotgun to the US neocons on whatever the current thing happens to be.
While even Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that there’s no “smoking gun” tying Iran to the latest Hamas attacks, that hasn’t stopped the usual neocon warmongers on the American side of the Transatlantic alliance from substituting sloganeering for actual policy, either – in favor of Iranian regime change, of course. “This is one of history’s best cases for regime change,” said former US National Security Advisor John Bolton. Because, when it comes to drumming up Iranian regime change, neocons are suddenly willing to take Hamas’ word to the bank as their trustworthy source for Iran’s involvement. “The Biden Administration should get a spine and pin the blame on Tehran where it belongs,” Bolton later added. It “belongs,” facts and policy be damned, because it fits the radical neocon narrative, even if it ends up being to the detriment of American lives and interests.
“It is long past time for the Iranian terrorist state to pay a price for all the upheaval and destruction being sown throughout the region and world,” chimed in Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Somehow, these warmongers never manage to notice the interventionist sponsorship role long played by Washington and the West that has arguably interfered with all these Middle Eastern neighbors working things out amongst each other.
Blustery rhetoric in the heat of crisis is cheap for the Western armchair generals, but potentially expensive for countless others. They shoot off their mouths with little regard to the knock-on effects in the interests of appeasing allies and supporters. And it’s in these desperate moments, when reason risks taking a backseat to emotion, that they have the best chance of imposing their potentially catastrophic agenda.
Fact Check: Hamas 'Beheading Babies' Story Based on Weak Evidence
Amid the fresh escalation of violence in the Middle East, a story by Israeli i24NEWS reporter Nicole Zedeck from Kfar Aza, in which she reported that Israeli soldiers claimed they had found babies with heads severed by Hamas militants, was seized upon by the Western mainstream press, despite a lack of official confirmation
The Western mainstream press has yet again dipped into its playbook of hawking unproven claims and peddling what are often false narratives. Gut-wrenching headlines like “Hamas cut the throats of babies,” “An act of sheer evil,” and “Massacre of innocents” were emblazoned across a plethora of media outlets after an Israeli reporter claimed that bodies of babies, including some with their heads cut off, had been stumbled upon by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in the Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Aza.
Amid the latest spiral of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, an i24NEWS reporter was among the journalists invited to survey the aftermath of the infiltration of southern Israel by Hamas fighters. As IDF soldiers went from house to house removing the bodies of victims in the kibbutz near the Gaza border, the reporter, Nicole Zedeck, said:
“Talking to some of the soldiers here, they say what they witnessed as they’ve been walking through these communities is bodies of babies with their heads cut off and families gunned down in their beds…We can see some of these soldiers right now, comforting each other.”
Sputnik fact-checked the media hype around the swirling Hamas "beheadings" story, and found it to be based on weak evidence.
The unverified news of Hamas fighters reportedly beheading 40 Israeli babies swiftly took off on social media platforms, shared and retweeted despite not being verified by any news outlet.
The Israeli military does not have any data confirming the alleged massacre of women, elderly people, and children in Kfar Aza, an army representative told Sputnik.
The Israel Defense Forces, alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym Tzahal, is not in possession of any information regarding allegations that “Hamas beheaded babies,” Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency reported, after requesting a comment from the IDF. "We have seen the news, but we do not have any details or confirmation about that," an IDF spokesperson was cited as saying.
Palestinian militants based in the Gaza Strip launched an offensive against Israel dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, launching thousands of missiles while other groups breached the border and advanced into Israeli territory. The Israel Defense Forces retaliated with airstrikes against the Gaza Strip. The attack prompted Israel to declare a state of war, and put the Gaza Strip under full blockade, cutting off food, gas, and electricity supplies. Israeli and Palestinian authorities have reported that hundreds of people have died and thousands have been injured in the flare-up.
The Palestinian movement Hamas has also vehemently dismissed reports that Gazan fighters allegedly attacked civilians and killed children during the operation near the Gaza Strip.
“The [Hamas] movement categorically rejects the false accusations fabricated by certain Western media outlets, most recently of the alleged killings of children, their beheadings and attacks on civilians," it stated on its Telegram account. Hamas added that such false claims are "aimed at covering up war crimes and (Israel's) genocide against the Palestinian people."
The movement noted that it exclusively targets “[Israel’s] military machine and the security system built [by the Israeli authorities]," calling on Western media to "be objective and professional in reporting the latest events around the Gaza Strip."
Incidentally, the correspondent who eagerly spread the "Hamas beheaded 40 children" news, without any images or official statements to buttress them, later retracted her claim, and was quoted in media reports as saying:
“I just wanted to clarify that I did not tweet 40 babies had been beheaded. I tweeted that foreign media had been told women and children had been decapitated but we had not been shown bodies - which was my response to reports which had gone viral about the 40 babies. I realized the way my tweet was written was too short to explain the full context, so deleted it. My headline of my story references that toddlers were killed.”
However, the reporter's words fell on deaf ears, as the media frenzy had already caught fire.
There is no shortage of similar instances when the mainstream press has devoured deliberate distortions of facts to fit the Western narrative.
Bucha Frame-Up
Amid Russia's ongoing special military operation in Ukraine, in early April, 2022, the Kiev regime's media and social networks published graphic photos and videos of allegedly dead bodies strewn in the streets of Bucha. Russian troops had withdrawn from the Ukrainian town on March 30 as Ukrainian forces shelled it with artillery, tanks, and multiple launch rocket systems. After Ukrainian forces, including the neo-Nazi Azov* regiment, entered the city, they did not report any casualties among the locals. On April 2, Ukraine’s National Police, which also entered the town, filmed a video showing the city's streets and damaged buildings. Shortly after, Kiev claimed that Bucha was full of corpses, accusing Russia of war crimes and providing a video showing numerous alleged bodies lying in the streets - while the previous clip had failed to show any.
Ukrainian authorities blamed the alleged killings on Russia, despite many corpses in the videos wearing white armbands, which may have been considered Russian insignia by Ukrainian troops.
Moscow denounced the allegations, with the Russian Ministry of Defense saying that this was yet another provocation, and stressing that not a single Bucha resident had been harmed by the Russian military while the city was under its control. It underscored that Ukrainian forces shelled the city after Russian troops had already withdrawn from the area.
It should be noted that before reports of the mass killings surfaced, the Ukrainian police announced an operation in the settlement to "clear the area of saboteurs and accomplices of Russian troops," which also raises questions about possible preparations for a false flag operation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called on the international community to conduct an impartial investigation into the provocation in Bucha. While Moscow demanded that international leaders should not rush to make sweeping accusations, but listen to Russia's arguments, the Western mainstream media wasted no time in jumping on the graphic footage and peddling the uncorroborated "Bucha massacre" story, while branding Russia as the culprit.
Alleged Chemical Attack in Douma, Syria
On April 7, 2018, a number of NGOs, including the White Helmets, alleged that chemical weapons were used in Douma, Eastern Ghouta, by the Syrian government.
Chlorine bombs were allegedly dropped on the city, killing dozens and poisoning many locals, who were rushed to hospitals.
Russia dismissed the report as fake news, with its Defense Ministry pointing out that the White Helmets were notorious for spreading falsehoods. On April 9, 2018, Russian military chemists visited the site of the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, including the health facility shown in the White Helmets’ footage, but found neither cases of exposure to chemical weapons nor traces of toxic agents.
Yet the Donald Trump administration used the frame-up to justify massive US and allied strikes on Syrian government targets.
Both Moscow and Damascus lambasted the US attacks, citing the fact that Syria had joined the OPCW agreement in 2013 and destroyed its chemical stockpiles by 2014.
However, the US narrative was supported by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in its 2019 report. Soon after, both a WikiLeaks release and whistleblower accounts revealed that the organization had suppressed evidence confirming that the Douma incident was a staged provocation.
Kuwaiti Incubator Hoax
The so-called “Kuwaiti incubator hoax” in 1990 was based on unverified reports and a testimony given to the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus by a 15-year-old girl named Nayirah. She claimed that during the August 1990 invasion, Iraqi soldiers took Kuwaiti babies out of hospital incubators and left them to die.
The horrendous story was resorted to by then-US President George H.W. Bush as a rationale behind supporting Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. However, when the war was over, it turned out that the story lacked any evidence.
*Azov is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.
