The images of the dead infants were included in the video played to NATO. It was not released to the public, but was later seen by Reuters in Jerusalem. Reuters could not independently verify the material.
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There were no images to suggest militants had beheaded babies – a particularly explosive accusation that first emerged in Israel’s media and initially confirmed by Israeli officials.
U.S. President Joseph Biden had suggested on Wednesday that he had seen images of children beheaded by militants. The White House later clarified that U.S. officials had not seen any evidence of this.
Netanyahu has not repeated a claim by his office earlier this week that Hamas had indeed cut off the heads of children, nor did Gallant repeat that accusation to NATO ministers.
It’s an important point because that imagining dozens or hundreds of supposedly decapitated babies is being used as fuel for Palestinian genocide by completely dehumanizing them.
It must’ve been five times at work today I heard people talk about this and tacitly support destroying the rest of Gaza
I would agree that the claim, true or not, shouldn’t be used to justify a scorched earth policy in Gaza, because that is not justifiable, ever. I’d also say that the state of the murdered babies necks isn’t particularly relevant in whether Israel is justified in engaging in any military response at all.
This is really a situation where cool heads need to prevail, and I am of course concerned given Israel’s rhetoric so far. A military response to thoroughly root out Hamas is justifiable, I would say, and that will tragically come with civilian casualties. Indiscriminate killing of all civilians would never be justified, but we’ve only seen that from one side. That’s not to say that the IDF couldn’t be doing more to protect civilians, but there is a very large difference between not doing as much as you can to reduce collateral damage and intentionally massacring civilians. If that were the Israeli objective, it would be done by now.
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It’s an important point because that imagining dozens or hundreds of supposedly decapitated babies is being used as fuel for Palestinian genocide by completely dehumanizing them.
It must’ve been five times at work today I heard people talk about this and tacitly support destroying the rest of Gaza
I would agree that the claim, true or not, shouldn’t be used to justify a scorched earth policy in Gaza, because that is not justifiable, ever. I’d also say that the state of the murdered babies necks isn’t particularly relevant in whether Israel is justified in engaging in any military response at all.
This is really a situation where cool heads need to prevail, and I am of course concerned given Israel’s rhetoric so far. A military response to thoroughly root out Hamas is justifiable, I would say, and that will tragically come with civilian casualties. Indiscriminate killing of all civilians would never be justified, but we’ve only seen that from one side. That’s not to say that the IDF couldn’t be doing more to protect civilians, but there is a very large difference between not doing as much as you can to reduce collateral damage and intentionally massacring civilians. If that were the Israeli objective, it would be done by now.