What mainstream media didn’t tell you about Iran’s attack (and other news) – Day 360

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What mainstream media didn’t tell you about Iran’s attack (and other news) – Day 360
Photo Credit: (Fadel Itani/AFP/Getty Images)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff 

On Tuesday, following the missile attack from Iran, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer (both aggressively pro-Israel) interviewed Israeli military international spokesman Nadav Shoshani and Israeli journalist Barak Ravid – hardly impartial commentators.

This is typical of not just CNN, but all mainstream media (MSM) outlets (and has been for decades). Palestinian or pro-Palestine guests are rarely, if ever invited to speak on these networks.

It is not surprising therefore that many Americans who think they know what is going on in the Middle East are dead wrong.

The disconnect is particularly striking on a day like this, after a major event that has been severely mis-reported.

If Americans Knew specializes in separating facts from misinformation.

MSM didn’t tell you: on Tuesday, Israel killed over 100 Palestinian and Lebanese people

Overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday morning, Israeli attacks have killed at least 79 people across the Gaza Strip. Attacks include:

  • Israeli fighter jets bombed the al-Amal Institute for Orphans in Gaza, which houses displaced people, killing at least five Palestinians.
  • Israeli forces also bombed the Muscat school, which is also being used as a shelter for displaced people.
  • Israeli bombs also destroyed a three-story house in Nuseirat camp, killing seven children and three women.
  • An Israeli air strike on a tent in Khan Younis housing displaced people killed six people, local medics said.

Israeli attacks across Lebanon killed at least 55 people on Tuesday, the Lebanese Health Ministry says.

Israeli forces also killed at least 2 Palestinians in the West Bank on Tuesday, then blocked ambulances trying to reach them, shot at medics, and confiscated their corpses.

  • Since October 7th, in the West Bank Israel has killed 720 Palestinians, including 160 children, and injured 5.750, including 660 children.
RECOMMENDED READING: CNN runs Gaza coverage past bureau operating under shadow of IDF censor
Palestinians have been living in makeshift tents in Rafah, as an IDF ground campaign nears Gaza's southernmost city. (Photo credit: Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Palestinians have been living in makeshift tents in Rafah, as an IDF ground campaign nears Gaza’s southernmost city. (Photo credit: Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images) (photo)

MSM didn’t tell you: Israeli forces have been on an arrest rampage in the West Bank

Al Jazeera reports:

Israeli forces have detained at least 30 people in the occupied West Bank overnight and in the morning.

The total number of Palestinians arrested in the West Bank since October 7 is more than 11,000.

NOTE: Israel is currently holding about 9,900 Palestinian prisoners in inhumane conditions where many are systematically tortured – 240 of them are children, 87 are women, and over 3,300 are administrative detainees – being held without charge or trial. Administrative detention is intended to be used only in “exceptional” circumstances, but Israel uses it widely. Read more here.
Israeli forces, and in some cases settlers, have killed over 570 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7th, with near total impunity.
Israeli forces have arrested over 11,000 Palestinians from the West Bank since October 7th; Israeli forces, and in some cases settlers, have killed over 700 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7th, with near total impunity. (photo)

Did MSM tell you about these incidents?

Al Jazeera reports: On Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes reportedly hit at least three locations in southern Syria.

The Intercept reports that over the weekend, Israel bombed Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, and Syria within a 24-hour span, damaging civilian infrastructure and killing dozens. In Lebanon on Sunday alone, Israeli strikes killed at least 105 people.

The Cradle reports: A US facility near Baghdad International Airport was targeted with rockets early on 1 October.

Al Jazeera reports: The Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee released a statement: “If the Americans intervene in any hostile action against the Islamic Republic or if the Zionist enemy uses Iraqi airspace to carry out any bombing operations on its territory, then all American bases and interests in Iraq and the region will be our target,” the group said.

NOTE: Israel has been badgering the governments and people of many countries around them – and claims that its neighbors don’t like Israel.
The US’s unwavering support for Israel – even as it commits genocide – angers the governments and people of many countries – and has begun to put American forces at risk.
Israel has decimated Gaza, and is in the process of doing the same to Lebanon.
Israel has decimated Gaza, and is in the process of doing the same to Lebanon. Israel has become a pariah in the international community – and so has its “ally,” the United States. (photo)

Did MSM tell you that Iran targeted only actual military locations – in line with international law?

The Cradle reports:

Officials in Tehran say Iran’s missiles achieved direct hits on multiple military bases across the country, locations chosen for their significance.

“We targeted three military bases: Nevatim, which houses F-35 aircraft, Netzarim, which houses F-15 jets used in the assassination of [Hezbollah leader] Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and Tel Nof base near Tel Aviv with Fattah ballistic missiles,” officials said.

The Iranian operation also targeted “several air and radar bases, as well as centers for plotting and planning assassinations against the leaders of the resistance.”

A Hezbollah source reportedly confirmed that most of the Israeli bases targeted by Tehran “were hit directly, especially the airbases,” adding that Tel Aviv recorded “significant casualties” among its troops.

“Despite this region being protected by the most advanced and dense defense systems, 90 percent of the strikes successfully hit their targets.”

Palestine Chronicle adds: The Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on his part, stated that Iran exercised “self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, targeting solely military & security sites in charge of genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.”

Araghchi said that Iran exercised its right to self-defense after a long period of restraint.

“We did so after exercising tremendous restraint for almost two months, to give space for a ceasefire in Gaza,” he stressed.

Al Jazeera adds: The IRGC declared that its missiles had hit “strategic centers” inside Israel, including a number of air and radar bases, and “centers of conspiracy and design of assassinations against the leaders of resistance.”

Despite protection from the most advanced air defense systems, Iran’s military said, 90 percent of the projectiles successfully hit their targets, “and the Zionist regime is panicking from the intelligence and operational control” of the IRGC.

Al Jazeera adds: A Palestinian worker from the Gaza Strip, Samih Asali, 37, was killed on Tuesday evening as a result of falling “rockets and shrapnel” in Jericho in the eastern occupied West Bank. It remains unclear when he arrived in the West Bank from Gaza.”

In a related incident in Jordan, two people were injured as a result of shrapnel falling in several provinces of the kingdom following an Iranian missile attack on Israel, the country’s Interior Ministry said.

NOTE: According to Fox News, Iran was “hopeful” some missiles would slip past the missile defense system and target “population centers.” This statement was completely unfounded.
Members of Israel’s home front inspect a crater at a school in Gedera. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
Members of Israel’s home front inspect a crater at a school in Gedera.
Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images (Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)

Western leaders decontextualize Iran’s attack in order to condemn it – instead of condemning Israel

IAK analysis:

According to CNN, top officials from France, Britain, Germany and the European Union have all condemned Iran’s missile attacks on Israel, warning of potentially disastrous consequences for the wider region.

Each of their statements fails to acknowledge the context: Israel flagrantly provoked this attack by assassinating a Palestinian leader who was in Iran. That is, Israel escalated the situation.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian reminded the world that Israel is not the only country with the “right to self-defense.” He announced that Tuesday’s missile strikes on Israel are based on the country’s “legitimate self-defense​​​​​​​ rights”, noting that a “decisive response” was given to the “aggression” of Israel.

In a statement, he warned, “Let Netanyahu know that Iran is not a belligerent, but it stands firmly against any threat. This is only a corner of our power. Do not enter into a conflict with Iran.”

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, declared that Iran’s missile attack was an act of “self-defense” that only targeted military and security sites used for attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

He pointed out that Iran’s measured attack came “after exercising tremendous restraint for almost two months, to give space for a ceasefire in Gaza.”

The foreign minister added that Iran’s action was “concluded” unless Israel “decides to invite further retaliation” – words that indicate that Western leaders who want an end to the conflict ought to counsel Israel to exercise restraint.

Instead, their responses disregarded all relevant context:

  • U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant following what he called an “outrageous act of aggression by Iran against Israel,”
  • The State Department requested Tuesday that every nation join the US in condemning an Iranian ballistic missile attack against Israel.
  • Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Iran’s attack was “totally unacceptable, and the entire world should condemn it.”
  • British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced what he called an “attempt by the Iranian regime to harm innocent Israelis” and “escalate this dangerous situation” in the Middle East
  • Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Germany has “urgently warned Iran against this dangerous escalation.”
  • She said the attack by Iran was “leading the region further into the abyss.”
  • The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, warned a “dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation” is underway that risks “spiraling out of control.”

After European leaders blamed Iran, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz took the cue and continued decontextualizing the attack, threatening Israeli “retaliation” for Iran’s “brutal” missile attack.

NOTE: The Biden administration called on the world to condemn Iran for its retaliatory attack, but did not condemn the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh or Hassan Nasrallah; it did not condemn Israel’s attack on Lebanon, or its slaughter of 41,000+ Gazans or 720+ West Bank Palestinians.

MSM downplays or disregards the clear path to regional quiet

IAK analysis:

Mainstream media keep so busy (and keep their viewers/readers so busy) talking about Israel’s right to defend itself, and its right to bring its citizens in the north back home, discussing Israel’s “surgical strikes” and the West’s condemnation of Israel’s enemies – they often neglect to discuss ending the violence.

Israel is intent on continuing to fight until its enemies are pulverized, and has no discernible plan for “the day after.”

But in fact, Israel’s “enemies” have laid out a clear and reasonable path to ending the conflict.

Hamas is calling for the permanent withdrawal of Israel from Gaza; Hezbollah is calling for a ceasefire in Gaza; Iran is calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The United Nations and the International Court of Justice have also called for a ceasefire.

Judges at the International Court of Justice attend a hearing of the genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa in The Hague
Judges at the International Court of Justice attend a hearing of the genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa in The Hague (photo)

Al Jazeera reports:

“Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it,” Benjamin Netanyahu said at the outset of a political-security meeting.

“The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies.

“We will adhere to the principle we have set: Whoever attacks us, we will attack them. This is true in every region we fight the axis of evil and it is true for Iran as well.”

NOTE: Netanyahu appears unaware of the determination of Iran to defend itself. He also apparently has forgotten that Israel initiated this round of attacks by assassinating a Palestinian leader who was on Iran’s sovereign soil.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 16, 2023.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 16, 2023. (photo)

When MSM report that Israel is carrying out “limited, localized” invasion of Lebanon, they are not telling the truth

CNN reported: [On Tuesday,] Israel announced it launched a “limited and localized” ground operation in Lebanon.

The Intercept reports:

The Israeli military has tried repeatedly to minimize the perceived scope of its attacks, describing its ongoing invasion of Lebanon as “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” against Hezbollah.

“Increasingly we’ve seen Israel use words like ‘targeted’ and ‘limited,’ words that try or seek to convey that this is somehow acceptable,” said Mai El-Sadany, executive director of the D.C.-based think tank Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. “And yet we know from the last year — in Israel’s war in Gaza and this latest front in Lebanon — that these are euphemisms for, at the end of the day, what may very well amount to be war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The Israel Defense Forces has said it is carrying out “precise strikes on military targets” in Lebanon – however, Israel’s definition of “military targets” [and “precise strikes’] is problematic.

For the past two weeks, Israel’s bombing campaign across Lebanon has killed more than 1,000 people, including at least 243 children and women, the country’s health minister said. One million people in Lebanon — nearly a fifth of the country — have been displaced from their homes.

The IDF claims to have destroyed “over 150 terror infrastructures” which it says includes “Hezbollah headquarters, weapons storage facilities, and rocket launchers” inside Lebanon.

NOTE: Israel has insinuated that every home in southern Lebanon potentially has Hezbollah weaponry, and is therefore “terror infrastructure.”
Israel has used the same vocabulary about Gaza, while killing over 41,000 people – a large number of them civilians who were sheltering in schools, hospitals, houses, and tents that Israel decided (without providing evidence) were “Hamas command and control centers.”
The Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon has forced tens of thousands to flee to the country's capital of Beirut.(Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon has forced tens of thousands to flee to the country’s capital of Beirut.(Anadolu via Getty Images) (photo)

Did MSM provide context for this story? – Israel: At least seven killed in Tel Aviv shooting

Middle East Eye reports:

At least seven Israelis have been killed and 10 others injured in an attack by two men armed with an assault rifle and a knife at a light rail station in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, local media reported.

Police said the two men who carried out the attack were subsequently shot dead by a civilian armed with a gun and a security guard. The identities of the men have not been confirmed, but they were reportedly from the West Bank.

Commenting on X, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, said the attackers were from Hebron in the occupied West Bank. He called for the men’s families to be “deported to Gaza” and for the demolition of their homes.

NOTE: Palestine Chronicle adds: Hamas called the incident “a natural response to the war of extermination and Zionist aggression in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Lebanon.” (While this statement is not an endorsement of the killing of Israelis, it does help to explain why this incident might have happened.)
ALSO NOTE: Since October 7th, about 25 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian individuals in Israel and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. During the same time period, 720 West Bank Palestinians have been killed – mostly by Israeli military, but some by extremist Israeli settlers living illegally on Palestinian land.
While there has been an uptick in settler violence since October 7th, every one of the more than 700,000 Israeli settlers living on Palestinian land are violating international law. Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and incentivized Israeli Jews to live in them.
Many Palestinians believe that Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement. Settlers, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.
In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
A group of Jewish settlers under the protection of Israeli soldiers raids the Old City area of Hebron, West Bank on September 14, 2024 [Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu Agency]
A group of Jewish settlers under the protection of Israeli soldiers raids the Old City area of Hebron, West Bank on September 14, 2024 [Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu Agency] (Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu Agency)
MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 1, 2024:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 1, 2024: at least 42,409* ( 41,689 in Gaza* – 11,308 women (30%), 16,859 children as of September 5. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 720 in the West Bank (~160 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 300,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

  • At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 25 from West Bank).
  • At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
  • About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
  • Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

Palestinian injuries from October 7 – October 1, 2024: at least 102,160 (including at least 96,625 in Gaza and 5,750 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 1, 2024: ~1,457 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 293*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

The death toll in Lebanon since October 8, 2023 is 1,745 (104 children, 194 women) and 8,767 injuries. More recently, since September 16, 1,030 have been killed, 6,352 have been injured., with 6,352 injuries, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Saturday, September 28.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals. 

***The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents. 

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
 

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