BBC defends Gaza coverage after White House criticism
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the corporation, after updating an article's headline with new information, had to 'correct and take down' its story about fatalities and injuries following a reported incident near an aid distribution centre in Rafah.
The BBC said it has not removed its story and explained that its headlines about the incident were 'updated throughout the day with the latest fatality figures as they came in from various sources', which is 'totally normal practice'.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, Ms Leavitt responded to a question about the incident and said: 'The administration is aware of those reports and we are currently looking into the veracity of them because, unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don't take the word of Hamas with total truth.
'We like to look into it when they speak, unlike the BBC, who had multiple headlines, they wrote, 'Israeli tank kills 26', 'Israeli tank kills 21', 'Israeli gunfire kills 31', 'Red Cross says, 21 people were killed in an aid incident'.
'And then, oh, wait, they had to correct and take down their entire story, saying 'We reviewed the footage and couldn't find any evidence of anything'.'
While she was speaking Ms Leavitt held up a document that appeared to show a social media post from X, formerly Twitter, with the different headlines.
The person who posted the headlines also posted a screenshot from a BBC live blog and wrote: 'The admission that it was all a lie.'
The headline from the blog post read: 'Claim graphic video is linked to aid distribution site in Gaza is incorrect.'
A BBC spokesperson said this came from the a BBC Verify online report, and not the corporation's story about the killings in Rafah, saying that a viral video posted on social media was not linked to the aid distribution centre it claimed to show.
Ms Leavitt added: 'We're going to look into reports before we confirm them from this podium or before we take action, and I suggest that journalists who actually care about truth do the same to reduce the amount of misinformation that's going around the globe on this front.'
A BBC spokesperson said: 'The claim the BBC took down a story after reviewing footage is completely wrong. We did not remove any story and we stand by our journalism.
'Our news stories and headlines about Sunday's aid distribution centre incident were updated throughout the day with the latest fatality figures as they came in from various sources.
'These were always clearly attributed, from the first figure of 15 from medics, through the 31 killed from the Hamas-run health ministry to the final Red Cross statement of 'at least 21' at their field hospital.
'This is totally normal practice on any fast-moving news story.
'Completely separately, a BBC Verify online report on Monday reported a viral video posted on social media was not linked to the aid distribution centre it claimed to show.
'This video did not run on BBC news channels and had not informed our reporting. Conflating these two stories is simply misleading.
'It is vital to bring people the truth about what is happening in Gaza. International journalists are not currently allowed into Gaza and we would welcome the support of the White House in our call for immediate access.'
The corporation has faced a backlash over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict and it emerged earlier in the year that a documentary it aired about Gaza featured the son of a senior Hamas figure.
Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone was removed from BBC iPlayer after it emerged that the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas's deputy minister of agriculture.
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The Herald Scotland
28 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Mohamed Soliman's antisemitic attack deepens divisions in Boulder
They ignore the taunts and epithets flung by college students and counter-protesters, focusing on their goal: Bring them home. These moments, these footsteps, they weren't political. It wasn't about their personal views on Israel's war against Hamas. "We just want them home," said longtime marcher Lisa Turnquist, 66. "That's why we do this," she said. The small group of "Run for their Lives" marchers in this college town were sharing their message on June 1 - 603 days since Hamas snatched concertgoers and ordinary people from southern Israel and vanished them into Gaza's tunnels. But halfway through the Sunday afternoon march, a suicidal Muslim immigrant attacked them with a flamethrower and Molotov cocktails, injuring 12, including an elderly Holocaust survivor. Many regular marchers of the group are Jewish. Six of the injured in what federal officials have described as a terror attack were from the same synagogue, Bonai Shalom. But instead of bringing the community together, the attack appears to have further exacerbated existing fault lines across this wealthy, liberal city where pro-Palestinian protests verging on outright antisemitism have become a way of life for elected leaders and college students. After the attack, someone posted "Wanted" signs on the Pearl Street Mall just steps from the scene, naming the majority of city council members as guilty of "complicity in genocide" for refusing to pass a ceasefire resolution and not divesting from businesses that are helping Israel wage its war against Hamas. "Not only has the rhetoric become increasingly centered around violence and division but we have an increasing amount of cowardice, from cowardly administrators, cowardly government officials," said Adam Rovner, who directs the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver. "We're seeing it much more clearly now. And unfortunately Jewish communities are paying the cost." Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces more than 118 state and federal charges in connection with the attack, including hate-crime accusations. Investigators say he confessed and remains unrepentant, telling them he deliberately targeted the marchers because he considered them a "Zionist Group." Divisions continue after Pearl Street attack Amid the extreme positions on the Israel-Hamas war, Run for their Lives believed most people could get behind their message. The national Run for their Lives organization has sponsored walks or runs in hundreds of cities and towns since Oct. 7, 2023, the day of the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust in which over 1,000 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage. As of June 5, 56 hostages are still being held by Hamas, although that number includes both the living and presumed dead. On June 1, as she had dozens of times in the past, Turnquist was pushing her Australian shepherd Jake in a stroller as the group made its way past the historic Boulder County Courthouse on Pearl Street pedestrian mall. She saw a man dressed like a landscaper - odd, she thought, since it was a Sunday - and thought it would be best to just keep walking, as she had done so many times before when counter-protesters screamed and yelled. There had never been physical violence against the group, but there were insults, jeers, accusations that the marchers themselves support genocide. Turnquist and others who have marched said they often felt unsafe. "We ignore the people who are against us," said Turnquist, who is Jewish. "We can't let Boulder tell us what to do. We can't let university students tell us we can't do stuff like this, because that's what they do. Week after week, people are yelling at us all the time, saying we are causing genocide. We're not causing genocide. We were attacked and we are fighting to get our hostages back." The conflict between the marchers and counter-protesters is a microcosm of the vicious disputes that have long been on display in Boulder, where Palestinian students disrupted classes earlier this year. Turnquist, the protest marcher, said knowing the group lacked the full support of local elected officials made it harder to feel comfortable during those Sunday protests. She said she went into a Boulder shop at the start of the Gaza war while wearing a necklace with a Jewish symbol on it. The shopkeeper suggested she hide it, so she didn't become a target, she said. "One of the things I remember saying was ... the masks are going to come off and we're going to see who the antisemites are. We're going to see them for who they are. And sure enough it started happening all over," Turnquist said. "It was people that I didn't even think would be antisemites - it was some friends." Nationally, polls have shown that younger Americans are more likely to side with Palestinians than with Israel, including young Jews. And an April 2024 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 31% of Jews younger than 35 felt Hamas' reasons for fighting were valid, compared to just 10% for Jews aged 35 and older. Turnquist said the Sunday marches were deliberately non-political: They didn't call for attacks on Hamas or for more retaliation by Israel. Instead, they focused on the one thing they thought everyone would agree with. To Soliman, that apparently didn't matter. According to investigators, he researched the protest group online, took concealed-weapons classes and planned his attack for a year. Video recordings of the attack captured Soliman shouting "Free Palestine" as he threw Molotov cocktails into the crowd of marchers, setting fire to several victims, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor. "Mohamed said it was revenge as the Zionist group did not care about thousands of hostages from Palestine," Boulder police wrote in an arrest affidavit. "Mohamed said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine)." Soliman's motivation, as reported by police, mirrored similar language used by the sole member of the Boulder City Council who declined to sign onto a group statement from city leaders condemning the attack. Councilmember Taishya Adams condemned the attack but said she declined to sign the group statement, which identified Soliman's actions as antisemitic, because it didn't specifically note that he was also motivated by what she considers anti-Zionism. "If we are to prevent future violence and additional attacks in our community, I believe we need to be real about the possible motivations for this heinous act," Adams wrote in a statement explaining her decision. "Denying our community the full truth about the attack denies us the ability to fully protect ourselves and each other." Responded Councilmember Mark Wallach: "Your efforts to make what I think is a pedantic distinction as to whether a man who attempted to burn peaceful elderly demonstrators alive - to burn them alive, Taishya - was acting as an antisemite or an anti-Zionist is simply grotesque." Jewish groups in Boulder have previously tangled with Adams over what they say are her own antisemitic remarks regarding Palestine, and pro-Palestinian protesters repeatedly disrupted city council meetings. Adams did not return a request for comment from USA TODAY. On June 5, the first meeting after the attack, the mayor announced that in-person public comment would be prohibited because pro-Palestinian protesters have so often disrupted meetings. Among those who have watched protesters disrupt council meetings was Barbara Steinmetz, a Holocaust survivor burned in the June 1 attack. In a video interview last year, Steinmetz recounted what it was like to attend council meetings alongside pro-Palestinian protesters, including one interaction with a woman carrying a sign referencing "from the river to the sea," the rallying cry of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which called for erasing Israel. "I turned to her and said, 'Do you realize that that means you want to kill me? You want me destroyed?' But she just turned away," Steinmetz said. "Jews in Boulder and maybe Denver and probably in cities all around the world, are afraid of wearing their Jewish stars. They're taking down their mezuzahs so that no one will know that it's a Jewish house. They're not identifying themselves because they're frightened." Soliman's attack didn't happen in a vacuum Rovner, from the University of Denver, said pro-Palestinian college protests helped lay the groundwork for increased violence, in part because many students don't truly appreciate what it means to repeat and thus desensitize the meaning of chants like "globalize the intifada" and declarations that Palestine should run "from the river to the sea." Says the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs: "Calls to 'globalize the intifada' are not calls for civil disobedience, general strikes, or negotiations. They are calls for the murder of Israelis and Jews around the world and must be taken seriously by governments and law enforcement agencies." Like CU-Boulder, the University of Denver was home to an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters last year, and Rovner said there were repeated confrontations between the protesters and Jewish students walking to class. Rovner has a close friend who often participated in the Boulder walks. "These are precisely the kinds of things that cause terrorist groups to pick up weapons to attack people," Rovner said. "When you heighten the rhetoric of hatred and demonize one country and claim to only be opposing an ideology, you are almost inevitably going to see action based on that rhetoric." Jewish scholars and community leaders say the attack on Boulder was frustratingly predictable given the sharp rise in antisemitism sparked by the war in Gaza, with escalating rhetoric, protests and demonstrations nationwide, particularly on college campus and college towns. In response to those warnings, President Donald Trump specifically targeted pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, launching investigations into 40 campuses that his administration has accused of not doing enough to protect the Jewish community from participants. Security and extremism experts say a significant factor in driving violence is that many protesters draw no distinction between someone who is Jewish and someone who supports Israel's attacks on Hamas in Gaza, which is home to about 2.1 million Palestinians. In April, a man firebombed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's house hours after a Passover celebration, telling police he targeted Shapiro over "what he wants to do to the Palestinian people." And on May 22, a man shot and killed a young couple outside the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. "Free Palestine," the man shouted. "I did it for Gaza," he later told investigators. "These attacks and many more in recent months - on campus, at Jewish institutions and this time at a peaceful gathering here in Boulder - have targeted people whose only 'offense' is that they are Jewish. Or someone thought they were Jewish. Or they were standing as allies alongside Jews," the Rocky Mountain Anti-Defamation League said in a statement to USA TODAY. A report released last month found that antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2024 hit a record high for the fourth consecutive year. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security on June 5 issued a security alert warning that more antisemitic violence could be coming. "The ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters," the security agencies said in the warning. "Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States." Survivor returns to site of the attack Run for their Lives organizers say they remain undeterred as they gear up for this weekend's march. "This didn't happen in a vacuum. It is the result of increasingly normalized hate, dehumanizing rhetoric, and silence in the face of rising antisemitism. But we will not be deterred," Rachel Amaru, the founder of Boulder Run For Their Lives said at a June 4 rally for the victims. "We invite everyone to join us, not just with your feet, but with open hearts and minds. Choose humanity over hate, curiosity over judgment, and learning over condemnation." The day after the attack, Turnquist returned to the scene of the attack to lay flowers and display a small Israeli flag on behalf of her injured friends. Still shaken by the attack just 24 hours earlier, she visibly shook as she recounted her efforts to help the victims. "I woke up this morning and didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to get out of bed and didn't want to talk to my friends who were calling me. But this is when we have to get up and stand up, and we have to push back," Turnquist said. And she promised to be back walking every Sunday until all the hostages are home.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
BBC The Gold star admits personal connection to £26m Brink's-Mat scandal
BBC crime drama The Gold is returning to our screens tonight - and star Charlotte Spencer has opened up about coming back to play Jennings and her real life connection to the crime The mystery of the Brink's-Mat robbery may have been solved in the first series of BBC One's The Gold – but the case is far from sealed shut. Hugh Bonneville and Charlotte Spencer return as London detectives in the drama's second series, inspired by the real-life 1983 robbery in which £26 million worth of gold bullion was stolen from a warehouse in Heathrow. While Micky McAvoy's gang were convicted over the theft in series one, only half of the missing gold was found. 'A lot of people have said, 'Oh my God, why is there a second series?'' says Charlotte, who plays detective Jennings. 'A lot of people don't realise that they actually only found half of the gold. 'There's a whole other half – a whole other story. There are many stories that happen from this and I think people are going to be amazed at just how far it spreads and how much this web keeps growing.' Jennings' relationship with her criminal dad is a source of conflict for her – however, in real life, Charlotte's father has his own link to the Brink's-Mat gold case. She reveals that her dad knew Neil Murphy, one of the police officers involved in the investigation, and mentioned the connection when he read the script. 'It was such a passing comment that I just thought it was amazing – and you tend to find that a lot of people knew people involved in whatever way,' she says. 'My dad hasn't spoken to that man for years but it's very rare that you get any kind of connection to a real story. 'For me, that was like, 'Wow – this was really ingrained in British culture.'' Despite filming the show's first series over two years ago, it didn't take long for Charlotte, 33, to get back into character as the unflappable Nicki Jennings who's incorruptible despite her family's criminal roots. 'This is the second time that I've done a series where my character has come back and there's just a really lovely feeling of going in and knowing the character,' she says. 'There's none of this panic about, 'Have I found it?' because I know where she is now. It's really lovely.' With several convictions now under her belt, Nicki is no longer trying to prove herself to boss Brian Boyce – played by Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville. 'We find her a bit more solidified in where she is now. She's already proved herself and she is a good detective,' she says. 'She's getting her head down and concentrating on finding these people.' The likes of Malpractice's Tom Hughes, Criminal Record's Stephen Campbell Moore, Cheaters' Joshua McGuire and The Witcher's Lorna Brown join the drama for the new series. Meanwhile, fans can expect to see Jack Lowden and Tom Cullen reprise their roles as criminal gold dealers Kenneth Noye and John Palmer. Despite playing cops and robbers on camera with The Gold's stellar cast, Charlotte and her co-stars were sunning it up during their downtime on location in Tenerife. 'It was so wholesome – a load of us would go out for dinner together and some people have young children so brought them out,' she reveals. Ahead of shooting intense scenes, Charlotte would listen to a playlist that she created specifically for Jennings – something that she does for every character she plays. 'I make the playlist and it might be really random stuff – whatever gets me into that mood for some reason or what I think they'd listen to. I listen to that on set and it gets me in the headspace,' she reveals. 'There was a lot of 1980s stuff – David Bowie and Queen's Under Pressure… even things like the Beatles that maybe she would have listened to with her dad growing up.' As for whether The Gold could return for a third series, Charlotte says, 'The story finishes after this otherwise we'd be in the realms of fiction, so this is the last series but I think that's right. 'I'll miss the fact that she genuinely wants to do good and there are people like that out there. 'There are police officers and all sorts and we don't see enough of them. Wholly good people who can make mistakes but the drive is for justice.' The Gold begins tonight at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
David Pratt: Israel's arming of Gaza's crime gangs is sure to backfire
Speaking at his military farewell ceremony last week before taking up his new post, Zini it seems was keen to point out that messianism, far from being a dirty word, is in fact what underpins today's Israel. 'We are all messianic – like David Ben-Gurion and the founding fathers of the nation, who saw in our people's grand vision a message for the entire world,' the new domestic spy chief told his audience. Israel by its deeds and actions has never been shy of sending out messages to the rest of the world – especially militarily. More often than not, they have not gone down well, especially in relation to its actions in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and subjugation of the Palestinians. READ MORE: Freedom Flotilla urges UK Government to 'protect' ship from Israel as it nears Gaza Last week was no exception, with reports surfacing of what could best be described to say the least as a controversial strategy in Israel's efforts to defeat Hamas. In short, over the course of these past months Israel has been arming criminal gangs that loot aid convoys and are led by a known thief and drug trafficker with links to the terrorist Islamic State group (ISIS). The Shin Bet, which Zini is about to head up, has it seems been at the forefront of such a strategy and under his leadership few doubt things will change. Why should they change, ask critics, when the man who appointed him, Netanyahu, appears only too happy to confirm the measures? 'Israel is working to defeat Hamas in various ways, on the recommendation of all heads of the security establishment,' Netanyahu's office declared last week as the reports surfaced. Hours later Netanyahu himself doubled down on the statement, his tone almost one of nonchalance and disregard. 'We made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas … What's wrong with that?' Netanyahu said in a video posted on Twitter/X. 'It's only good. It saves the lives of Israeli soldiers,' he then added. But according to some observers, both inside Israel itself and beyond, there is a lot to be concerned about regarding such a strategy. Among those Israeli voices condemning the policy was former Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, now leader of Israel's right-wing opposition Yisrael Beiteinu party. 'The Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with Islamic State, at the direction of the prime minister ... it's total madness,' Lieberman said in a radio interview, while also adding that Shin Bet was aware of the weapons transfers. Lieberman's concerns are based primarily on the fact that with no way of monitoring or following where such weapons end up, there is no guarantee they will not be directed at Israel It's a view shared by many. But it's not just Israelis that would be on the receiving end of such a policy and already Palestinians in Gaza are feeling its brutal impact. So just who are these 'clans', as Netanyahu calls them, what are their origins and how is their presence affecting the lives of Gazans and threatening the future of the territory? The first thing to realise here is that ever since the early days of the current conflict in Gaza – which started after Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack – the Shin Bet along with other Israeli intelligence officials have worked hard to identify and support potential Palestinian rivals to undermine Hamas. Among those identified was an armed gang led by a man named Yasser Abu Shabab, a thief and drug trafficker from the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Some reports suggest that Abu Shabab was previously jailed by Hamas for smuggling drugs, and that his brother was killed by Hamas when the group cracked down on attacks on UN aid convoys. Abu Shabab is descended from the influential Bedouin Tarabin clan, which spans southern Gaza, the Sinai, and the Naqab Desert. The area between Gaza and Sinai is known for drug smuggling and Abu Shabab's group has previously been accused of involvement in smuggling operations linked to Egyptian jihadi groups, hence Avigdor Lieberman's claims of his connection to ISIS which has a presence in the area and is known to be involved in the drug networks. Calling itself both the 'Anti-Terror Service' or 'Popular Forces', Abu Shabab's group is believed to comprise a relatively small number of members, perhaps in the hundreds. But despite its diminutive size, Israel saw it as an opportunity to help undermine Hamas. It's incorporation into such a strategy, say analysts, also underscored Netanyahu's uncertainty on who should take over the future administration of Gaza. 'If you think about who really can be an alternative to Hamas in Gaza, you have two options: either an Israeli military administration or the Palestinian Authority,' said Brigadier General Shlomo Brom, a former top Israeli military strategist, now retired. Speaking to the New York Times (NYT), Brom explained how Netanyahu does not want either because a full occupation of Gaza would be costly, financially and politically, for Israel. On the other hand, engaging with the Palestinian Authority (PA), Brom said, would probably require a discussion about a Palestinian state, a prospect opposed by leading members of the Israeli government 'So they're looking for other solutions,' Brom was cited by the NYT as saying, describing the options as 'dubious'. READ MORE: UK won't recognise Palestine at UN conference despite 'discussions', reports say Late last year, these 'dubious' options came in the shape of Abu Shabab's gang. Eyewitnesses in Gaza often described how the gang sets up berms to waylay aid convoys along the Israeli-controlled route from Kerem Shalom, where they waited with Kalashnikovs and other weapons. Georgios Petropoulos, a senior United Nations official who was based in Gaza last year, called Abu Shabab 'the self-styled power broker of east Rafah'. One internal United Nations memo seen by The Washington Post concluded that the gangs 'may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence' or 'protection' from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). One gang leader, the memo said, established a 'military-like compound' in an area 'restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF'. That leader was Abu Shabab. Throughout this time, Israeli, Palestinian and international observers have insisted that the gang's activity could simply not operate without the awareness of the IDF. 'There is no chance an armed militia or clan can work out in the open like this without Israel's agreement, and definitely not in Rafah,' said Michael Milshtein, a former senior Israeli military intelligence officer, in an interview with the Financial Times ( FT). Following last week's admission from Netanyahu that Israel was arming Abu Shabab's gang, the official page of the 'Popular Forces' media office issued a statement continuing to deny any connection with the Israeli army. 'We wholly reject these allegations,' the statement read. 'We regard this as a blatant attempt at distorting the image of a popular force that was born out of suffering and in the face of oppression, theft and corruption.' But as the specialist Middle East website Mondoweiss highlighted in an online article last Friday, 'analysts have continued to point out that Abu Shabab's carefully curated social media presence, with the appearance of statements in both English and Arabic, is beyond the capabilities of the Gaza gang and is likely the work of the Shin Bet'. In a video posted last Wednesday, Abu Shabab can be heard calling on people from eastern Rafah to return to their homes, saying that food, medicine and shelter would be provided. The footage features images of several tents that appeared to have been erected in the area. Mondoweiss also cited Muhammad Shehada, a writer and civil society activist from Gaza, as saying that today Abu Shabab 'works in his new capacity as the head of his rebranded 'national force' of gang members to loot aid under the Israeli military's protection, carry out surveillance of resistance forces on its behalf and secure aid going to the murky US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), which is the US contractor tasked with delivering aid to Palestinians instead of the UN'. Israel has sought to overhaul aid distribution, backing the controversial GHF private scheme to hand out aid under the supervision of security contractors and Israeli soldiers. The Israelis insist the new system is vital to ensure Hamas is unable to benefit from aid that would help support its continued resistance. But UN officials and others have refused to participate in the scheme, calling it a 'weaponisation' of aid and saying they have not seen evidence of systematic diversion by Hamas. In fact, Hamas itself has now upped its crackdown on Abu Shabab's gangs. In its recent coverage, Mondoweiss detailed how Hamas has set up what has been dubbed the Arrow Unit. The unit was first formed over a year ago in March 2024, when the phenomenon of looting by armed gangs began to spread throughout Gaza and began as informal groups of young men. Abu Hadi, a member of the Arrow Unit who is also an officer in the Gaza police force, told Mondoweiss that he decided to join the unit after 'witnessing thieves robbing food stores and international kitchens, without concern for the people's hunger'. Since then, the Arrow Unit has conducted operations going head on with Abu Shabab's gangs who Hamas identifies as collaborators with the Israelis. In last Wednesday's video by Abu Shabab, he can be heard saying that that the 'Popular Forces' are working under 'Palestinian legitimacy', a phrase that Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders often use to refer to their government. The Palestinian Authority, the West Bank-based rival of Hamas, has declined to comment on reports of connections between Abu Shabab and its government, yet another reminder of the power vacuum that exists in Gaza. READ MORE: Israeli forces kill six Palestinians near Gaza aid site The obvious threat posed to Gazans aside, Israel's attempts to exploit this security vacuum it created by backing Abu Shabab's gangs as an alternative to Hamas rule is a tactic not without precedent. Always in the past too, this has only served to make an already dire situation in Gaza even worse. Critics of Israel's policy say what is unfolding on the ground in this collaboration between Shin Bet, the IDF and the gangs points to a nefarious longer-term scheme, used to push Israel's starvation, ethnic cleansing and genocide policies. They remind also of the danger of creating a Frankenstein monster type militia in the region. Last week, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid responded to the claim that Israel is arming Abu Shabab with a warning that it could see a repeat of a grim history for the country. He reminded that for decades, including multiple terms in office for Netanyahu, Israel allowed Hamas to grow as a counter to rivals Fatah, allowing Hamas to entrench its control in Gaza. It was seen as a cynical bid to prevent a unified Palestinian leadership from taking hold in Gaza and the much larger territory of the West Bank. 'After Netanyahu finished giving millions of dollars to Hamas, he moved on to giving weapons to organisations close to ISIS in Gaza, all off the cuff, all without strategic planning, all leading to more disasters,' Lapid warned on social media. His views were echoed by a recent editorial in the Israeli daily Haaretz. 'Instead of any serious discussion about reconstruction and the enclave's future, Netanyahu is advancing a messianic vision that includes crimes against humanity in the form of ethnic cleansing and population transfer,' observed the newspaper. In advancing that 'messianic vision', Israel's arming of gangs in Gaza will doubtless go on. Netanyahu after all now has his chosen head of Shin Bet, David Zini, to implement that vision, and he too by his own admission is 'messianic'.
