Israel shoots starving civilians seeking food in Gaza, media can no longer hide the atrocities

(LifeSiteNews) — Last week showed how Israel’s media machine tries — and fails — to shut down reports of its atrocities. This week has shown how Israel’s descent into depravity is out of control — and that it can no longer keep the truth of its crimes out of the news.

Eight days ago Jeremy Scahill of the recently formed DropSite News gave a compelling critique of the US/Israel-arranged food program for the starving Palestinians as seen below. He called it a weapon in "Netanyahu's war of annihilation" in Gaza. 

On Sunday June 1, reports emerged of Israel shooting civilians packed into fenced corridors, while awaiting food aid which Israel has cut off since early March.

The Irish Times said an “Israeli attack in Rafah near aid distribution point kills at least 31 people,” adding that according to medics, an Israeli tank had fired into a crowd of “thousands of people en route to get aid.”

Reuters reported the killings along with Israel’s routine denial.

The next day, Monday June 2, reports came of a second Israeli attack on people seeking food aid, wounding 35 and killing three.

In this video report from three days ago Scahill debunks Israel's lies over the aid killings. 

The reports were met with furious accusations of “blood libel” by the Israeli government. This is a reference to disputed mediaeval accounts of the ritual child sacrifice carried out on Christian children by Jews.

Netanyahu has used this line for years to demonize anyone who accuses his regime of the crimes it has openly committed, accusing the International Criminal Court of “blood libels” for presuming to charge him for crimes against humanity.

Various media outlets caved into pressure, with the pro-Israel narrative labelling reports of the killings as “Hamas propaganda,” and the IDF producing an audio recording blaming Hamas.

British pundit Piers Morgan, who has routinely challenged any attempt to describe Israel’s crimes by demanding whether interviewees support Hamas, has now been targeted as an antisemite himself. Morgan admitted in late May that his stance on Israel’s genocide “was wrong.”

Morgan’s horrified reaction to Israel’s June 3 killings sparked another wave of antisemitic libels.

On June 3, Morgan interviewed the Israeli-British lawyer Natasha Hausdorff, labelling her claims “utter bulls***” when she claimed the reason international journalists were barred from Gaza was out of Israel’s concern for the safety of journalists.

Hausdorff suggested that all the now over 220 mostly Palestinian journalists Israel is said to have killed since Oct. 7, 2023, “were Hamas”. That number does not include the entire families of some of them who were also killed using the Isreali-developedWhere’s Daddy tracking software, because their family member was a journalist .  

There have been more journalists killed during the conflict, Palestinian and some international ones, than in both past world wars. 

Morgan said “there is only one reason why Israel doesn’t want international journalists crawling all over Gaza. It’s because they do not want them reporting what they will find – which...will include the bodies of thousands of children.”

Morgan added that Israel is “not counting” these bodies – but “journalists would.”

Morgan then mentioned that Israel's ambassador to the UK had said “it was a blood libel for me to say that Israel had killed children.”

Hausdorff then denied reports that Israel had killed nine of a Palestinian doctor’s ten children in an airstrike the previous week.

“You don’t believe that story? Wow,” said Morgan.

1400 medical workers, including numerous physicians, have also been mostly deliberately targeted and killed in Gaza by the IDF. 

Following the interview, described as a “car crash” by pro-Israel media, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Chikli then accused Morgan of “overt antisemitism” for accurately describing Israel's actions.

Morgan responded in kind to the attacks on him by the Israeli establishment.

Noticing Israel’s crimes is therefore antisemitic, repeating toxic tropes of child murder — and reports of the intentional killing of civilians simply enemy propaganda. This is the line that Israel fights in its media war. If this week has proven anything, it is that Israel’s frontline media defense has collapsed.

Morgan yesterday renewed his call for international journalists to be permitted access into Gaza, following reports Israel killed a further three journalists.

On June 3, the Israeli Jewish Axios reporter Barak Ravid documented another instance of Israel killing civilians desperate for food aid.

Ravid’s report met with the same coordinated denials and smears, but Reuters also told of “at least 27 killed” by Israeli fire on the same day, and in the same place. Israeli army sources confirmed they had shot into a crowd.

“The Israeli military said its forces had opened fire on a group of people they viewed as a threat after they left a designated access route near the distribution center in Rafah and approached their positions.”

The International Red Cross added that almost 200 casualties had been witnessed after the attack.

“An International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson said its field hospital in Rafah had received 184 casualties, adding that 19 of those were dead upon arrival, and eight died of their wounds shortly after.”

Reuters added that “Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer denied that civilians had been targeted.”

The media shutdown was initially successful, but by June 3 mainstream outlets had noted the killings had been taking place for three days. By June 5, testimonies from “survivors, doctors, and IDF officers make clear that the IDF did indeed slaughter many innocent Palestinians trying to get food in Gaza” — as a report from Haaretz noted.

In a further twist, the IDF released “drone footage” blaming Hamas gunmen for the killings at the Rafah site.

This fueled further disruption to the online narrative, adding to claims the reports of Israel killing civilians were false, were made by Hamas, or that the killings took place elsewhere.

Yet the video did not take place in Rafah. Israeli video has been geolocated to a different incident in Khan Younis.

According to reports, the gunman is not from Hamas but from an “ISIS-linked” terrorist group armed and funded by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This astonishing claim is not made by Hamas but by the former defense minister Avigdor Liberman.

Ynet’s report of June 5 said that the Prime Minister’s office “did not deny the claim.”

“Avigdor Liberman on Thursday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of supplying weapons to armed militias in Gaza with ties to ISIS, as new reports raise questions about coordination between Israel and emerging non-Hamas factions in the enclave,” Ynet explained.

The Times of Israel included Liberman’s comments to the Israeli national broadcaster Kan News on June 5, “The Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with Islamic State, at the direction of the prime minister.”

Liberman believes Israel is “fighting the wrong war” in Gaza, a position echoed by the former Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo, who said in a report from yesterday that the war in Gaza is “useless.”

An exceptional Al Jazeerra Listening Post program presents notable critical comments from a former Israeli prime minister, some European leaders, doctors and many others condemning the current, horrific situation in Gaza. We are not able to embed the video here but it can be seen by clicking on the above link.

LifeSiteNews has found Al Jazeera to be a very professional, surprisingly balanced news reporting organization that employs a significant number of non-Muslim media professionals.

The latest figures estimate over 54,000 people have been killed by Israel since October 7, 2023, but other reputable international sources put the total deaths number far higher and reaching 200,000 or more, including the impacts of deliberate starvation and lack of water and even minimal health care.