Israel Update 7.8.25

TWO GERMAN NEWSPAPERS EXPOSE MORE HAMAS DECEPTION

 

Süddeutsche Zeitung has published an investigative report revealing how Hamas manipulates imagery to shape international opinion, detailing how the group stages images of hunger and despair in Gaza, using professional photographers and emphasizing that many widely circulated images of emaciated children do not accurately reflect current conditions. Some of the photos are not from Gaza at all, while others feature children suffering from chronic illnesses unrelated to the war. One image obtained by the paper shows photographers directing Gazans to pose as though they were waiting in line for food.

Bild newspaper also addressed the issue, reporting that one of the freelance journalists responsible for distributing staged images — which were picked up worldwide and treated as credible — regularly posts anti-Israel content on social media.

The photographs in question were not only published by Bild, but also appeared in outlets such as the BBC, CNN, New York Magazine and others

Reports hereand here

 

Several European picture agencies stated that they will no longer use images from a Gazan photographer after an investigation found that some of his depictions of hunger in the Strip were staged.

Anas Zayed Fteiha was filmed taking pictures of civilians queuing for aid.  From the perspective of his lens, the photo showed a crowd of Gazans with empty bowls outstretched, appearing to be jostling for food. However, a wide shot from the film revealed that there were no supplies behind Fteiha as he took the photo and that he was not at a food bank at the time. Report here

 

HAMAS TORTURES HOSTAGES 

 

In two separate videos released by Hamas and Islamic Jihad last weekend, Israeli hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David appear gaunt, broken, and visibly emaciated. Braslavski – barely able to speak –says: “I’ve run out of food and water. If before they gave me a little bit, now there’s nothing. Today I ate three falafel crumbs – three crumbs.” In the second, David, also starved and barely able to hold a shovel, is seen digging what appears to be his own grave in a Hamas tunnel.

International media largely ignored the videos. The BBC led with a pre-captivity photo of Evyatar David and included a single still from the actual footage further down in the article. Report here

The EU, France and Germany on Sunday condemned the videos with leaders insisting Hamas must have no role in Gaza’s future. Report here

After enduring nearly 2 years of unimaginable torment Galia David viewed the horrifying footage of her emaciated son being forced to dig his own grave in the terror tunnels of Gaza. Both he and Rom Braslavski spent their first weeks of captivity bound hand and foot with bags over their heads, blood dripping from their wounded limbs. In February, Hamas cruelly filmed them watching other hostages released, and then returned them to the tunnels. She said “I want everyone in the world to see this image, to know what Hamas terrorists are doing….I want each person to stop and think for a moment: What if this were your son or brother? What would you do?” Article here

Evyatar David’s brother rebuked the UN Security Council on Tuesday, accusing the international community of complicity through silence as captives waste away in Hamas captivity. He warned: “We know from medical reports that Evyatar, Guy, and the others are on the brink of death. They only have days left. Days! That’s how urgent this is. Each of them has lost half their body weight. My brother weighs about 40 kg. What’s happening to them is calculated, deliberate cruelty.” Report here

Footnote: Israeli PM Netanyahu requested the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Sunday to deliver food and medical assistance to Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Report here

(As yet no IRC response)

GAZA

Israel’s Foreign Minister Sa’ar at the UN on Tuesday said countries that announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state in recent weeks sabotaged a ceasefire deal with Hamas and prolonged the war.

 “to pressure Israel, instead of Hamas, during sensitive days in the negotiations by attacking Israel, campaigning against Israel, and the announcement of a recognition of a virtual Palestinian state. They gave Hamas free gifts and incentives to continue this war” Report here

 

Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) shared footage on Monday of bustling markets in Gaza with large quantities of food to counter Hamas’s accusations of famine. The footage shows fresh produce being sold, along with pastry shops being open. While “aid is flowing in, by land and by air every day, Hamas is pushing a fake famine narrative” while stealing the aid and selling it at a large markup. “The food is there. The aid is there. Hamas keeps it from those who need it most.”  Report here

 

A new mechanism has been approved to allow goods into Gaza in a “gradual and controlled” manner, COGAT announced Tuesday. Several local merchants have been approved to sell basic food products, baby food, fruits and vegetables, and hygiene supplies.Report here

 

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said “The immediate plan is to scale up the number of GHF (US & Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund)  aid sites to 16 and begin to operate them as much as 24 hours a day to get more food to more people more efficiently,” Despite criticism of the GHF’s operations, Huckabee called the mission “phenomenal,” saying it had so far delivered 106 million meals. Report here

 

U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who came to personally assess the situation in Gaza and to ensure that humanitarian aid is being provided, said that while there is hardship and food shortages, there is no starvation in Gaza. Report here

 

Almost nine out of every 10 UN trucks that entered Gaza with humanitarian aid over the last several months were looted — either by hungry Gazans or by armed groups — before reaching their destination, according to United Nations statistics.Report here

 

An IDF major said today “We’ve seen Hamas loot and fire at civilians who tried to approach” to receive humanitarian aid…”We’ve treated civilians who were wounded by Hamas gunfire.”Report here

 

 Throughout nearly two years of war, Hamas has used a secret cash-based payment system to pay 30,000 civil servants’ salaries. One senior Hamas employee who is familiar with Hamas’s financial operations told the BBC that the group had stockpiled $700 million in cash and hundreds of millions of shekels in underground tunnels prior to the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Report here

 

UNWRA

 

The Israel Foreign Ministry Deputy Director for International Organizations wrote that in employee lists sent to the Israeli Foreign Ministry last week, one can see that UNRWA still employs many Hamas terrorists, some of whose names were sent in a letter to UNRWA Secretary-General Philippe Lazzarini and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in July 2024, but nothing was done about it. “Any responsible government that doesn’t want its taxpayers’ money to reach Hamas should not fund UNRWA.” Report here

 

HOUTHI ATTACKS CONTINUED

Since March 18, the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have launched 68 ballistic missiles and at least 18 drones at Israel.

Ballistic missiles were fired on Friday night and early Tuesday morning, both causing sirens to sound in central Israel and the Jerusalem area, sending millions of Israelis to shelters. The missiles were successfully intercepted. On Sunday a Houthi drone was intercepted. Report hereReport here

 

GOLDIN FAMILY’S 11 YEAR ORDEAL

Of the 50 Israelis, alive and deceased, held hostage in the Gaza Strip, only one has been there more than 664 days, the period since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

On August 1, the family of soldier Hadar Goldin marked exactly 11 years since he was killed and his body taken captive by Hamas operatives. Report here

 

MEDICAL RESEARCH

 

Researchers at Sheba Medical Centre and Tel Aviv University have successfully grown human foetal kidney components from tissue stem cells outside the body for the first time, marking a significant breakthrough in regenerative medicine and paving the way for advances in treating birth defects, drug testing and future organ regeneration.Report here

 

A new Israeli study led by cardiologist Dr. Dana Viskin reveals that a widespread belief that “swallowing the tongue” during cardiac arrest is so dangerous that it must be dealt with first, is a myth and actually delays life-saving CPR. The study analysed 45 documented cases of athletes collapsing between 1990 and 2024, (including Christian Eriksen’s collapse at Euro 2020) focusing on initial responses. Report here

 

THE UK

 

The RAF has been flying surveillance aircraft over Gaza to help Israel find missing hostages since Oct 2023, government sources have confirmed.  Report here (paywall)

 

EGYPT

 

Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field has signed a deal worth up to $35 billion to supply gas to Egypt through 2040. Leviathan began supplying Egypt in 2020. Report here

 

BUSINESS

 

Israeli startups raised over $900 million across 28 deals in July, a 28% increase compared to 2024.

Report here

SPORT

Israeli Cyclist Omri Danon won the gold medal at the Mountain Bike Downhill European Championships in Spain. Video posted on X here

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

 

Hostages

 

Dr. Fiamma Nirenstein: In the past week, the world saw images of two Israeli hostages – Evyatar David and Rom Barslavski – reduced to skin and bones, while their Hamas captors casually ate in front of them. These were not staged photos. They were real, raw, and horrifying. Yet, the world seems largely unmoved…While Israel is falsely accused of causing famine in Gaza, Hamas is actively using starvation as a tactic, not against its enemies, but against the very captives it holds as human bargaining chips. This is cruelty, not collateral damage. It is deliberate, not incidental.
A campaign of moral inversion is being waged against Israel. The actual aggressor is painted as a victim. The true victim is told to make more concessions. Evyatar and Rom are symbols of a world where Hamas can starve them on camera and still be considered a negotiating partner. A world where the worst forms of cruelty are rewarded with diplomatic recognition, media sympathy and aid dollars. Full article here

JC Editorial: Western newspapers and television screens recently filled with images of two emaciated Palestinian children, presented as proof that Israel is starving Gaza. Yet both were later revealed to suffer from pre-existing muscular diseases. Now contrast that with the world’s reaction to the videos of two skeletal Israeli hostages – the latest grotesque propaganda released by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. These images were not splashed across front pages. It took days for many outlets even to report them – and with none of the intensity that attended far shakier claims about Israel.
These emaciated, brutalized, traumatized hostages simply don’t fit the narrative that much of the media, NGOs, and even some Western governments have spent the past 22 months carefully constructing. In this script, Israel – the victim of a genocidal assault – is recast as its perpetrator.Full editorial here

 

Gaza

 

Michael R. Pompeo: The very organizations designed to help with the situation in Gaza, the UN and its sprawling web of aid partners, are collapsing under the weight of corruption, incompetence, and cowardice. Hundreds of UN aid trucks are sitting inside Gaza, fully loaded and going nowhere. Their aid delivery system is paralyzed – crippled by corruption, looting, and its own dangerous entanglements with Hamas. Food convoys routinely disappear into chaos or into the hands of Hamas militants.
To make matters worse, much of the international media has become part of the problem. What once passed for journalism now often functions as a megaphone for Hamas propaganda – repeating their claims as fact, attacking independent aid efforts like the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) without evidence, and refusing to report credible allegations of collusion between aid agencies and terror operatives.
The same outlets that downplay or ignore Hamas’s brutality are the first to reflexively blame Israel for every civilian death, regardless of context or fact. This has consequences. That distorted coverage, echoed by activists, academics, and even elected officials across the West, has emboldened Hamas to prolong the war, inflict deeper suffering on its own people, and reject every off-ramp. Full article here

 

Melanie Phillips: Israel is certainly not using starvation as a weapon of war. On the contrary, it has allowed into Gaza tens of millions of tons of food since the war began. It has also instituted with the U.S. the only means of delivering food safely to Gazan civilians to stop Hamas stealing it for its own purposes.
There is no evidence of starvation. Images of skeletal children published by the New York Times and other media were fraudulent. These children weren’t skeletal because they were being starved in Gaza. They were either suffering from dreadful congenital diseases, or the pictures had been taken in Yemen. The giveaway was that adults and other children in the pictures were obviously well-fed…
The relentless bombardment of words and images denoting intolerable suffering in Gaza has been so overwhelming – striking the deepest chords of our humanity, even though the words and images may be false – that this manipulative campaign has had its intended effect. Conscience and compassion have been weaponized to service pure evil.
Yes, there is hunger and misery in Gaza as a result of the war started by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. But this has been caused not by Israel but by Hamas. Gaza’s civilians are an enemy population. Yet Israel is aiding them, in accordance with Jewish values of compassion, even to the enemy. Full article here

 

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: In recent days, I’ve spoken with dozens of Gazans who are furious about what is unfolding around them…their anger is directed primarily at Hamas, which they hold responsible for putting the people of Gaza in this position, and for its continued refusal to end the war that it started.
(One)said that Hamas is hunkered down in its tunnels, willing to see Gaza destroyed.
Hamas actually wants a famine in Gaza. Producing death from hunger is the group’s final play, its last hope for ending the war in a way that advances its goals. Full article here

 

Richard Kemp:  If there is greater devastation in Gaza than on some other battlegrounds, it can be understood by Hamas’s contemptible way of fighting. Tunnels have featured in armed combat for hundreds of years. But nothing before has come close to Hamas’s utilization of the 400 miles of tunnels it dug over 16 years as its primary military infrastructure, shielded beneath populated areas. The interconnected network includes tunnels down to a depth of more than 200 feet. In some areas every house or every other house contains weapons and explosives. I have seen boxes of grenades beneath children’s beds, rocket launchers in kitchen cupboards, and rifles stashed underneath piles of clothing. Some 40% of buildings in Gaza were also booby-trapped to kill soldiers.
Hamas transformed Gaza into an engine of war, harnessing the entire population, every building, every inch of land, along with much of the vast quantity of international aid poured in to help their people. Full article here (paywall)

 

More on the role of the West – pressurising Israel  while shielding and emboldening Hamas

Saul Sadka : At a critical point in the Israel-Hamas hostage negotiations, Western governments effectively emboldened a terror organisation, putting all the blame for the food situation and the pressure to agree on a ceasefire on Israel alone.
Hamas’s position then hardened despite many Israeli concessions, leading to a collapse of the talks.
The Gazans mostly want to flee the war zone – but Hamas wants them to stay and die, for the photo ops.
The Gazans want to eat – but Hamas wants to make that as hard as possible, to promote a false famine narrative.
By amplifying the jihadist narrative, the global media, the NGOs and the UN are giving Hamas false hope and in the process, they’re prolonging Palestinian suffering.

Without all that international pressure on Israel, Hamas may have folded already.   Full article here 

 

Brendan O’Neill: How do we explain Hamas’s lack of shame over what it inflicted on the two skeletal men seen in videos: Evyatar David, 24, and Rom Bravslavski, 21?

 What lies behind the pride with which it paraded its crimes before the world media?

It’s because it feels emboldened. It senses that it enjoys a kind of moral impunity among the opinion-shaping classes of the West…

Worse, Hamas senses that its crimes are not only forgiven but rewarded, too. It released the clips after the leaders of the UK, France, and Canada said they would recognize the State of Palestine…

To confer statehood on a territory that is still part-ruled by these barbarous militants who take pleasure in the persecution and murder of Jews is a grotesque betrayal not only of Israel but of basic decency…

Hamas’ atrocities are overlooked, even forgiven, in the maniacal rush to damn Israel as the world’s wickedest state. Now we know: our cultural elites didn’t only take the wrong side in this war started by Hamas – they emboldened that side, too. Full article here

 

Douglas Murray: Historians will note with some amazement that the present Hamas-started war led to Western countries scrambling to once again try a Palestinian-statehood option.
The years 2005-2023 showed in Gaza a glimpse of what a Palestinian state’s actual objectives and ambitions would be: not coexistence, but rather the continued effort to wipe out the Jewish state. Full article here (paywall)

 

Jonathan S. Tobin: The reason why Hamas is continuing a bloody guerrilla war in Gaza, even after its military formations and capability of inflicting rocket fire on Israeli civilians have been smashed, is that they are counting on public opinion in the West to hand them an undeserved victory. It is why they have deliberately created a food crisis by stealing the massive amounts of aid that Israel has allowed into Gaza.
As has been the case for decades, those who criticize or condemn Israel act as if the Palestinians have no moral agency for their conduct or fate. Critics…seem to think that the Palestinians have no responsibility for what has happened and must be saved from the consequences of their actions, no matter how often they reject peace. They demand something unique in history: that an aggrieved combatant in a war forced upon them assume complete responsibility for the enemy population even before their opponents surrender.
By joining the chorus of those who seek to delegitimize Israel’s self-defence and force an end to the war in a way that clearly grants a triumph to Hamas, these critics are giving aid and comfort to genocidal Islamists. Full article here

 

Meir Ben Shabbat: When they (Hamas) see Israel is under attack from all sides, they see no reason to be flexible. Yet if Israel agrees to ending the war on Hamas’s terms, this will not only leave Hamas as the central power in Gaza, which will enable it to rearm and strengthen again, but also paves the way for Hamas to take control of the West Bank as well, where it already enjoys great popularity. Full article here

 

WSJ Editorial: Revelling in French, UK and Canadian plans to recognize a state of Palestine, Hamas has hardened its position and rejected new ceasefire talks. Editorial here

 

PM Starmer’s recent announcement on Palestine recognition

 

Tom Tugendhat: In saying that Israel could avoid British recognition of Palestine by securing a peace deal, PM Starmer is not only giving Hamas inordinate leverage, he is transforming recognition from a statement of legal fact into a disciplinary tool. This is politics masquerading as law.
The legal conditions for statehood are set out clearly in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States of 1933. Four criteria are necessary: a permanent population, defined territory, a government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. Recognition acknowledges these facts. It doesn’t create them. International law has always been clear that statehood is recognized, not granted. Full article here (paywall)

 

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar KC @DXW_KC

If a ceasefire is reached because Hamas releases all hostages, the UK will not recognise Palestine.

But if no ceasefire is reached because Hamas refuses to release all hostages, the UK will recognise Palestine.

No conditions put on Hamas. A significant strategic error. X post here

 

New York Declaration

Anne Bayefsky: At the UN last week, a three-day confab sought to promote a plan to create a permanent existential threat to the state of Israel and terminate the paradigm of a negotiated settlement…The “New York Declaration,” sets out to impose on Israel what Palestinians want instead of facilitating negotiations between the parties, contrary to legally-binding prior agreements.
…The declaration decides all the elements that were supposed to be subject to negotiations as listed in the Oslo agreements, including borders, settlements and Jerusalem… It demands Israel hand over fistfuls of money to the Palestinians – in the full knowledge that those dollars bankroll the pay-to-slay outrage. A Palestinian state is to come before “mutual recognition” of the Jewish state. It obscenely equates innocent Israeli hostages with Palestinian convicts having blood on their hands…It supports the deployment of international troops allegedly to protect Palestinian civilians, without Israeli approval. It preposterously praises the Palestinian Authority, which it claims should “continue implementing its credible reform agenda” – despite the fact that the PA has failed to implement any credible reforms for thirty years. It talks about protection of “legal and historical…Islamic and Christian” claims in Jerusalem and says nothing about Jewish claims, Jewish history, or Judaism’s holiest sites. Full article here

 

Media bias

 

Jonathan S. Tobin: One week after the New York Times put a horrifying yet completely misleading picture of a Palestinian Arab child on its front page to illustrate a story that lent weight to the false claim that Israel was deliberately starving people in Gaza, it had an opportunity to put an equally awful photo in the same spot. Hamas released videos depicting two of the remaining Israeli hostages who look as if they are actually starving.

But the Times chose not to highlight this atrocity on their front page…the story was not considered significant enough to warrant inclusion in the print edition of the paper. The online version failed to mention that the video showed one of the Israelis being forced to dig what was said to be his own grave.

The treatment of these two images not only demonstrates the editorial judgement that the Times employs when covering the conflict, but it is typical of most legacy print, broadcast and cable outlets in the U.S. and throughout the West…That’s just as true of American outlets like the Times and other legacy media. The reason why they are so quick to buy Hamas’s lies is that they have already largely abandoned journalism for activism. No amount of devoted media monitoring is going to convince them to correct their mistakes or to acknowledge their bias and change their ways. Full article here

 

 

Honest Reporting: The English-language media?…They show you civilians suffering, but not the terrorists embedded among them.

They call for Israel to “show restraint,” but say nothing about the ones launching rockets from schoolyards.

And when Israel responds to rocket fire launched from hospitals, schools, even humanitarian areas, the headlines don’t focus on the attacks, they focus on the retaliation.

The collateral damage becomes the story, not the terrorists who triggered it.

Not the fact that Hamas uses civilians as shields. And by ignoring this footage, the media shields Hamas. Full article here