‘Israeli’ Military Accused of Misleading Western Media About Gaza War

By Staff, Agencies

Hebrew media suggested that the strangely worded ‘Israeli’ military’s announcement about ground troops in Gaza was deliberate, causing major outlets to report fake news – and Hamas to go exactly where ‘Israeli’ military wanted them.

Shortly after midnight on Friday, the Zionist occupation forces tweeted that “air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.” This led a number of outlets – such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, AFP and NPR – to report that ‘Israeli’ soldiers have actually entered Gaza, from which the Palestinian resistance had been launching rockets over the past week.

Officially, the confusion was due to “internal miscommunication,” ‘Israeli’ military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters on Friday. “These things can sometimes happen in the midst of a complex operation with many moving parts and with an unclear picture of what was happening,” he said. “As soon as I understood that I had the wrong information, I updated the relevant people with a clarification.”

Or Heller, a military correspondent for the ‘Israeli’ Channel 13, said otherwise. “It was a manipulation. It was smart and it was successful,” he claimed, according to AP. “What we saw tonight was a very sophisticated operation that had a media aspect to it.”

According to Heller, the reports led Hamas’s fighters to make for the underground tunnels that ‘Israelis’ call “the Metro,” from which they hoped to emerge and ambush the invaders. The ‘Israeli’ military used 160 airplanes and artillery to target the tunnels, bombing them for around 40 minutes.

During a conference call with a number of outlets on Friday, Conricus reportedly said there was no attempt “to try to fool anybody or to cause you to write anything that isn’t true,” adding that he “can understand that it may look differently.”

He admitted the Zionist military was trying to deceive Hamas with tactics like massing armor near the border with Gaza. The “target audience” of that wasn’t the press,” he said.