How 2 debunked accounts of sexual violence on Oct. 7 fueled a global dispute over Israel-Hamas war
Chaim Otmazgin had tended to dozens of shot, burned or mutilated bodies before he reached the home that would put him at the center of a global clash.
Working in a kibbutz that was ravaged by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, #Otmazgin — a volunteer commander with #ZAKA, an Israeli search and rescue organization — saw the body of a teenager, shot dead and separated from her family in a different room. Her pants had been pulled down below her waist. He thought that was evidence of sexual violence.
He alerted journalists to what he’d seen. He tearfully recounted the details in a nationally televised appearance in the Israeli Parliament. In the frantic hours, days and weeks that followed the Hamas attack, his testimony ricocheted across the world.
But it turns out that what Otmazgin thought had occurred in the home at the kibbutz hadn’t happened.
Beyond the numerous and well-documented atrocities committed by #Hamas militants on Oct. 7, some accounts from that day, like Otmazgin’s, proved untrue.
“It’s not that I invented a story,” Otmazgin told The Associated Press in an interview, detailing the origins of his initial explosive claim — one of two by ZAKA volunteers about sexual violence that turned out to be unfounded.
“I couldn’t think of any other option” other than the teen having been sexually assaulted, he said. “At the end, it turned out to be different, so I corrected myself.”
I am so sad this morning to hear of the passing of my PhD supervisor, co-author, friend and mentor Prof. Greg Philo. We have all lost a brilliant and pioneering scholar of media. A real fighter. I will miss Greg so much. He inspired me, made everyone laugh, was always optimistic and smiling. #gregphilo#media