Netanyahu tweets out claim that protesters blocked ambulances

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweets out a picture of a headline from the Makor Rishon news outlet claiming “leftist protesters blocked ambulances, cancer patients and the disabled,” accompanying a news article collecting various stories of people or medical treatment being delayed by protests.

The tweet is Netanyahu’s first response to the protests.

The headline he shares, however, writes a check that the accompanying article can barely cover. While people were undoubtedly delayed during the protests throughout the day, its claims of protesters keeping the disabled and cancer patients from treatment is based on accounts from two relatives of two of the right-wing newspaper’s journalists who had to sit in traffic.

FakeReporter, an Israeli group that fact-checks online claims, says that earlier messages sent out by Likud politicians and activists claiming massive delays by ambulances are based on fictitious accounts, after checking with Magen David Adom.

אזהרת פייק ????
זיהינו פרסום שקרי שצובר תאוצה ברשת על אישה שנפטרה לכאורה באמבולנס שהתעכב בגלל ההפגנות.

העובדות: מבדיקה שנעשתה עם מד״א לא מוכר אירוע כזה.

מפיצי השקר המרכזיים: פעילי הליכוד יגאל מלכה ואורלי לב; ערוץ ״חדשות ישראל בטלגרם״

הפיצו כדי שנעצור את הפייק! pic.twitter.com/36YbHv4FrW

— פייק ריפורטר | FakeReporter (@FakeReporter) July 11, 2023