Palestinian Authority claims Israel fabricated evidence of October 7 to justify its attack on Gaza
Gianluca Pacchiani is the Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
The Palestinian Authority circulates a document falsely claiming that a preliminary investigation by the Israel Police revealed that Israel “fabricated” media material to justify its attack on Gaza.
In a statement by its foreign ministry, the PA asserts that Israeli helicopters bombed Israeli civilians on October 7 during the Supernova music festival. The statement casts doubts on Israeli accounts of the atrocities on that day and on the visual material documenting the destruction and fires that affected the area near the Gaza border, and calls on all media outlets, UN officials and country leaders to follow-up on and review what the Hebrew media publishes.
The statement comes just a day after US President Joe Biden said that a “revitalized” PA should rule the Gaza Strip following the war, something Israel has repeatedly rejected, pointing to its refusal to condemn the October 7 onslaught.
The assertion that an IDF helicopter that arrived at the site of the festival near Re’im on October 7 may have killed some Israeli civilians was first made in Haaretz yesterday based on an unnamed Israeli Police source, and was widely picked up in the Arab press and shared on social media, taken widely out of context.
A police statement issued in response to the claim says that its investigation focused only and solely on police activity, and not any IDF activity, and therefore did not provide “any indication about the harm of civilians due to aerial activity there.”
The IDF did not comment on the report. The military has previously said it would investigate the October 7 attacks after the war.
Elements of the Haaretz article were taken widely out of context on social media and used to blame Israel for hundreds of civilian deaths on October 7, none of which has any basis in fact and in extensive reporting about the massacre.
