On 28th July it was reported by the British mainstream newspaper ‘The Daily Telegraph’ that – based on the claims of two anonymous sources – Israeli National Security Minister (and hater of all things non-jewish) Itamar Ben Gvir had received video footage of Israeli hostages being tortured with a direct threat from Hamas presumably as a form of psychological warfare. (1)
As the ‘Times of Israel’ summarised it at the time:
‘National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir received video footage of hostages being tortured by Hamas in Gaza, sources claimed on Sunday, in an attempt to force him to improve conditions for Palestinian security prisoners in Israel.
Two anonymous sources told The Telegraph that the footage had been accompanied by a warning that the worse things were for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the worse they would be for the hostages in Gaza.’ (2)
Naturally this was immediately picked up by Israeli media outlets seek to promote the continued Israeli atrocities and war crimes in the Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank and southern Lebanon. (3)
The problem was thought Ben Gvir quickly denied that this was true at all! (4)
Indeed as ‘World Israel News’ summarizes it:
‘Ben-Gvir took to Twitter to not only deny he received videos from Hamas, but also to double down on his hard-line policies to put pressure on Hamas and to avoid any compromise.
He wrote, “Hamas did not send me any video, and I refuse to submit to Hamas propaganda: One should only communicate with Hamas through action.”’ (5)
In other words: it is all made-up nonsense unless Ben Gvir is lying which I doubt because had it been true. He would have used it to further make the case for more extreme anti-gentile policies in Israel as well as fresh indiscriminate strikes by the IDF against alleged ‘terrorists’.
References
(1) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/28/hamas-sends-hostage-torture-video-with-direct-warning/
(2) https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-sent-ben-gvir-footage-of-hostages-being-tortured-in-gaza-report-claims/
(3) For example: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-812232; https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/07/29/hamas-threatens-israeli-minister-with-hostage-torture-video/; https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r1dkxyekr
(4) https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/propaganda-ben-gvir-denies-report-that-hamas-sent-him-footage-of-hostages-being-tortured/
(5) https://worldisraelnews.com/hamas-sent-ben-gvir-video-of-hamas-torturing-hostages-report/