Israel has a long documented history of lying and falsifying realities to cover up and deflect responsibility for the atrocities and war crimes they commit against Palestinians, and Western backers repeat those lies in their propaganda tools. The light will be shed here on a few of the egregious examples of those lies and crimes.

The New York Times heartbreaking video

The New York Times heartbreaking video from the phone of one of the 15 paramedics murdered in cold blood in Rafah by the Israeli occupation is an undeniable witness to the non-ending horrible Israeli crimes of the systematic targeting of civilians and humanitarian workers. It is not the first and not the last one. 

This video exposed the Israeli occupation's allegations that ambulances and civil defense vehicles in Gaza were moving suspiciously without their lights or emergency signals on. The newspaper reviewed a video clip found on the phone of one of the paramedics found in a mass grave in Rafah, in southern Gaza, refuting the Israeli narrative of the massacre.

The American newspaper said that the video clearly shows the ambulances and fire trucks carrying the paramedics and civil defense personnel with their emergency lights on, when they were targeted by Israeli occupation. The newspaper stated that it obtained the video from a senior UN diplomat and that it verified its location and timing.

Also, the newspaper noted that Palestinian Red Crescent spokeswoman Nibal Farsakh informed it that the medic who filmed the video had signs of a bullet wound to his head.

Lying about not targeting children and civilians

Killing of Muhammad ad-Durrah in 2000

Al-Dura was a twelve-year-old Palestinian boy who was mortally wounded and died soon after. The widely spread video of Jamal al-Durrah trying to shield his son as bullets rained down, was one of the pieces of evidence that exposed Israeli atrocities to the whole world which decided to turn a blind eye. 

Ad-Durah was killed at the Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip during widespread protests against the Israeli military occupation. Jamal al-Durrah and his son Muhammad were filmed by a Palestinian television cameraman freelancing for France 2. Footage shows the boy crying and the father waving, then a burst of gunfire and dust. 

Doctoring video to falsely claim medic murdered by an Israeli sniper was human shield - June 2018

In June 2018, an Israeli sniper killed a 20-year-old medic, Razan al-Najjar, during protests by Palestinians imprisoned by Israel’s occupation and siege of Gaza.  An-Najjar was fatally shot by a member of the security forces who was aiming directly at her as she was standing about 25 meters away from the fence, even though she posed no danger to him or anyone else and was wearing a medical uniform.

In an attempt to smear her and justify her killing following an international outcry, Israeli officials circulated a video purporting to show her saying she was acting as a human shield for Hamas. However, the video was subsequently revealed to have been doctored by the Israeli military to take her comments out of context. 

An investigation conducted by Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has concluded that Israeli security forces deliberately shot and killed Palestinian paramedic Razan al-Najjar, contradicting the Israeli army’s claims that it was an accident.

Lying about the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May 2022

On May 11, 2022, renowned Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by an Israeli sniper while she was covering a raid by the Israel Defense Forces at the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank and was wearing a vest clearly marked “Press.”. Then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and the Israeli military blamed Abu Akleh’s death on Palestinians, distributing unrelated video of Palestinian gunfire during the invasion as supposed proof. 

However, multiple independent investigations, including by The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Associated Press, and CNN, as well as by human rights groups like Amnesty International, and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, all concluded that Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli soldier. The Israeli military itself later backtracked, stating that Abu Akleh may have been killed by one of its soldiers.

Israel lied about the use of white phosphorus in violation of international law - October 2023 in Lebanon

A Report by Human Rights Watch in June 2024, revealed that on October 11 in Gaza, and on October 10 in Lebanon, the Israeli military used white phosphorus shells in violation of international conventions and international law. At first, and as usual, Israel denied the claim, stating it was “unequivocally false.” However, Human Rights Watch verified videos of “multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus” launched by the Israeli military over the Gaza City port and along the Israel-Lebanon border, labeling it a violation of international humanitarian law. Amnesty International also documented the presence of white phosphorus shells at an Israeli army base in southern Israel near Gaza.

Israel didn’t just lie about the New York Times video, or about Ash Shifa Hospital, or about Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old girl, whom they left to rot in a car for 12 days, her tiny body decomposing beside her murdered family, her final words “I’m scared, please save me ” met with silence, it has been lying for long decades and its western backers kept repeating its lies.

They turned Gaza into a mass grave and then blamed the corpses for their own slaughter.