New revelations show that an Israeli general killed settlers during Operation Al-Aqsa Storm launched by Gaza-based resistance fighters against the regime, and then lied about the incident.
The Israeli Keshet 12 television channel lately released previously unseen footage of an Israeli tank firing at a civilian home in Kibbutz Be’eri, which lies just a few miles east of the Gaza Strip, on October 7.
The new evidence shows that the Israeli commander on the scene, identified as Brigadier General Barak Hiram, lied to an Israeli journalist about what happened in the settlement that day.
This amounts to an attempted cover-up by a senior military officer, with media complicity.
But far from being held in any way accountable, Hiram is soon set to take up his new role as commander of the Gaza Division, the Israeli army brigade that suffered a humiliating defeat from Palestinian forces on October 7.
In an interview with Ilana Dayan, the host of Keshet 12’s investigative program Uvda on October 26, Hiram gave a false account of the efforts to rescue settlers in Be’eri.
He also fabricated atrocity propaganda, claiming that Palestinian fighters had tied up and killed 10 civilians in the kibbutz.
Hiram’s interview with Dayan was broadcast more than 10 days after Yasmin Porat gave her own testimony to Israeli public radio.
Porat was among 15 settlers held by Palestinian fighters in the house shot at by an Israeli tank seen in the new video.
In her October 15 interview with the Israeli radio station, Porat described how she and her partner Tal Katz had been at the Supernova rave, when rocket fire from Gaza began early in the morning of October 7.
The couple got in their car and headed to Be’eri, where they knocked on the door of kibbutz residents Adi and Hadas Dagan.
They hid with the Dagans until Palestinian fighters found them and took them to another nearby house, where more civilians were being held by several dozen Hamas fighters.
At Pessi Cohen’s house, according to Porat, the Palestinian fighters treated the dozen-plus Israeli settlers “humanely,” and assured them they would not come to any harm.
The Palestinians provided them with water and allowed them outside onto the lawn to escape the heat.
According to Porat, the fighters wanted Israeli authorities, who they thought would already be massing in the area, to grant them safe passage back to Gaza.
“We were outside and suddenly there was a volley of bullets at us from the [Israeli unit] YAMAM. We all started running to find cover,” Porat told Keshet 12.
Amid the gun battle that ensued, one Palestinian commander, later identified as Hasan Hamduna, negotiated his exit with the Israeli forces. The troops instructed him to strip and come outside with Porat.
As they came out, Porat called on the Israeli soldiers to stop firing, which they did. Then she saw several kibbutz residents lying on the ground.
Asked if Israeli forces may have killed them, Porat replied, “undoubtedly.”
“They eliminated everyone, including the hostages. Because there was very, very heavy crossfire,” Porat said. “I was freed at approximately 5:30 p.m. The fighting apparently ended at 8:30 p.m. After insane crossfire, two tank shells were shot into the house.”
Among those killed by the tank shells were Adi Dagan and Porat’s partner. Hadas Dagan was injured but survived.
In another interview last month, Porat revealed that according to Hadas Dagan, the Israeli tank shelling had also killed 12-year-old Israeli girl Liel Hatsroni.
Earlier this month, Hadas Dagan gave her first interview, confirming key parts of Porat’s account.
CNN anchor lies repeatedly about Israeli deaths
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian activists have described American journalist and news anchor Dana Bash, host of Inside Politics and co-anchor of State of the Union on CNN television news network, as the channel’s top anti-Palestinian propagandist.
The activists maintain that she has time and again pushed false information to her viewers, including misinformation about how many Israeli settlers lost their lives on October 7.
Bash has commented on the “brutal massacre” of “1,200 Israeli civilians.” She has not used such terminology for the thousands of Palestinian civilians bombed to death in their homes across the Gaza Strip, or the many Palestinians shot dead in the streets by Israeli occupation forces.
Neither Bash nor CNN has corrected her false claim that 1,200 Israeli settlers were killed that day.
Pro-Palestinian activists emphasize that Bash isn’t ignorant as she knows the facts about Israeli soldiers also being killed.
They argue that the inflation of the Israeli settler death total – and dropping of any reference to soldiers killed – is merely intended to make Americans more accepting of the carnage that Israel is directing at Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip has so far killed at least 20,674 people, most of them women and children. Another 54,536 individuals have been wounded as well.
The Tel Aviv regime has imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
