Tame Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera has wiped a report alleging IDF rapes in a Gaza hospital, moving Monday in a tacit admission the story was fabricated.
The Jerusalem Post reports the deletion came after more than 24 hours of letting the fake news story go viral.
The deleted page accused Israeli soldiers of allegedly perpetrating rape against women during the IDF’s latest excursion against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who barricaded themselves inside the former hospital-cum-terror headquarters at Shifa Hospital.
Though the Qatari outlet hasn’t officially referred to the retraction, all content related to the allegation has reportedly been deleted.
The Post report notes Al Jazeera columnist and former director Yasser Abuhilalah also tweeted, admitting “It was revealed through Hamas investigations that the story of the rape of women in Al-Shifa Hospital was fabricated… The woman who spoke about rape justified her exaggeration and incorrect talk by saying that the goal was to arouse the nation’s fervor and brotherhood.”
He went on, “As if more than thirty thousand martyrs, ninety thousand wounded, about a million displaced people, and comprehensive destruction were not enough!”
The original and now discredited story published by Al Jazeera featured a “testimony” by Jamila Al-Hessi, a Gazan woman who claimed while she was under siege in the area of the hospital complex, she witnessed IDF soldiers “raping women then killing them and burning entire families alive.”
Read the Jerusalem Post story in full here