Note to reader: We wanted to give you a trigger warning on what you may read below. We have chosen, as with every night of these briefings, to not share horrific images, however we want to alert you as sensitively as we can to the reports coming out of Israel.
Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary warn against misinformation
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly warned today that “last night, too many jumped to conclusions around the tragic loss of life at Al Ahli hospital. Getting this wrong would put even more lives at risk. Wait for the facts, report them clearly and accurately. Cool heads must prevail”.
His remarks were repeated by the Prime Minister in PMQs as well as Conservative Members of Parliament in a following Urgent Question.
In PMQs Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “I know that the whole House will have been shocked by the scenes at Al-Ahli Hospital. Any loss of innocent life is a dreadful tragedy and everyone will be thinking both of those who have lost their lives and of the families they leave behind. We should not rush to judgment before we have all the facts on this awful situation. Every Member will know that the words we say here have an impact beyond this House”.
The Prime Minister also declared to the House that “quite simply put, Israel suffered from a brutal terrorist attack at the hands of Hamas, and it is absolutely right that Israel has a right to defend itself, root out terrorism, and ensure that such an act does not happen again”. “It is Hamas who embed themselves inside civilian populations and put innocent civilians in harm’s way”, he added.
Former Cabinet Minister Sajid Javid MP said that “it saddens me, and I think it shames the whole House, that British Jews have been subjected to such vile abuse and hatred in recent days. Antisemitism and all hate crimes fly in the face of British values, and we should not allow events abroad, no matter how horrific they are, to be used to sow seeds of division in our own country”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak agreed that “the increase in the number of [antisemitic] incidents that we have seen over the past week is utterly sickening, and this Government will do whatever it takes to keep our Jewish community safe. We have provided an additional £3 million to support the Community Security Trust, we are working with the police to ensure that hate crime and the glorification of terror are met by the full force of the law, and under our existing immigration rules we have the power to cancel a person’s presence in the UK if it is not conducive to the public good. We will not tolerate this hatred—not in this country, not in this century”.
CFI Parliamentary Chairman (Commons) Stephen Crabb MP noted that “last night, sections of the British media were reporting as fact that it was Israeli rockets that had landed and attacked the Al-Ahli Hospital, relying on information supplied by officials in terrorist-controlled Gaza. The headlines have since been rewritten, but the outpouring of Jew hate on social media overnight was vile”. He asked the Prime Minister to “please make the point again that the way that this conflict is being reported has massive implications for our Jewish community and that any information coming from Hamas must be treated with a degree of scrutiny and cross-examination that is, sadly, sometimes lacking”.
The Prime Minister reiterated that “we should not rush to judgment before we have all the facts on the appalling situation that we saw yesterday, particularly given the sensitivity that he raises and the impact on communities here, but also across the region. “It is incumbent on all of those in positions of responsibility in this House and outside in the media to recognise that the words we say will have an impact, and we should be careful with them”, he added.
“In the same way as we do not treat what comes out of the Kremlin as the gospel truth, we should not do that with Hamas”, said the Prime Minister.
Sir Desmond Swayne MP argued that it is “Hamas that has turned [Gaza] into hell.” The Prime Minister agreed that “there is one person and one person alone that is responsible for the atrocities that we are seeing, and that is Hamas”.
In response to the Urgent Question in the House of Commons this afternoon, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said: “The whole House will understand that pointing fingers prematurely only fuels regional instability and upsets community cohesion here in the UK. We need a firm grasp of what has happened, not a slew of social media commentary. We all share a duty to be thoughtful and careful in how we respond to reports emerging from the conflict, which can be at best incomplete or at worst examples of active disinformation”.
“We must be highly sceptical of any information coming out of Hamas, just as the Prime Minister said we should be. We remain focused on trying to reduce the pain and suffering of the Palestinian people, as well as supporting Israel and its self-defence. While doing so we should be deeply, deeply sceptical of any and all information coming from Hamas spokespersons”.
The Foreign Secretary noted that “this was not a conflict that Israel asked for; it is a conflict that they were forced to engage in because of the mass murder in their country perpetrated by Hamas terrorists who embed themselves in schools, hospitals and in civilian communities”. “Calls for ceasefires are all well and good, but I have seen nothing—nothing—that leads me to believe that Hamas would respect calls for a ceasefire”, he added.
Cleverly also discussed his “admiration” of the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) “professionalism” declaring that “courageous restraint is not a concept in the heart of Hamas terrorists”. “We maintain our support of Israel’s self-defence and we highlight the fact that Hamas are just as willing to see Palestinians killed as they are to see Israelis killed, to pursue their political aims”, he added.
Former Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab MP argued that “one fact we know right now is that the primary moral, and as a result legal, responsibility for the appalling civilian life loss in Gaza today and in the days ahead lies with Hamas, first for their attack on Israel, and secondly for the systematic practice of using civilians as human shields”.
CFI Parliamentary Vice-Chair Andrew Percy reiterated the above stating “one fact that is not in dispute is that every rocket fired from Gaza into Israel is aimed at murdering civilians, in stark contrast to Israeli defensive action”. “Last night, there were Members in this place, including senior Members, scurrying around, stating as fact that this incident was caused by an Israeli rocket. The BBC and other media referred to statements by “Hamas officials”—I think they meant to say Hamas terrorists—and presented them as fact without challenge. That not only risks radicalisation of communities in this country, where we already know there is a problem with antisemitism, but puts Jews at risk. I urge colleagues to be careful of their comments given the role that blood libels play in promoting antisemitism”, he added.
CFI Parliamentary Officer Nicola Richards noted that “last night, much of the UK media felt it appropriate to immediately and with no room for doubt blame Israel, before the IDF gave its evidence that the rocket was launched from Palestinian Islamic Jihad”. “It is right that the UK Government independently assess what happened. All that is made so much harder because Hamas have no morals, no boundaries and no problem with killing any innocent civilian in Israel or Gaza”, she added.
Sir Michael Ellis MP also condemned misinformation circulating yesterday evening. He underscored that “last night an evil terrorist organisation that murders Jews and oppresses Palestinians was instantly believed in a number of quarters, whereas many refused to acknowledge that Jewish babies had been brutally murdered without demanding graphic proof”. “Unsubstantiated reports such as those we saw last night might actually cost lives, because they inflame tensions in an already highly volatile region”, he added.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP also called out Hamas and misinformation. He said that “we should remind ourselves of the words of Mark Twain: “A lie can travel half way around the world” before the truth has got its boots on. Never more certainly was that the case than here”. “I remind Hon. Members that Hamas bear complete responsibility for everything. Our hearts go out to all the innocents who have died and suffered—of course they do—but Hamas are the perpetrators. We remind ourselves that when they murdered all those Israeli Jews in the territories, they filmed them and committed atrocities deliberately. That was to remind the Israelis of the Holocaust and what was likely to come”, he added.
Rt. Hon. Damian Green MP noted that he is “struck by the number of emails… received from constituents who have already rushed to conclusions, and all blame Israel”. He highlighted the “important responsibility not only that broadcasters have to ensure they do not disseminate false information, but that owners of social media platforms have to try to avoid hate being spread literally around the world at times like this”.
This afternoon over 30 Conservative parliamentarians attended the Britain-Israel All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in support of Israel with standing room only. The event was chaired by CFI Officer Bob Blackman MP, Chair of the APPG, and a very moving speech was given by Israeli Ambassador to the UK H.E. Tzipi Hotovely.
The Ambassador thanked the UK for “standing with Israel in hard and dark times”. She described the normally joyous festival of Simchat Torah, the day the Hamas massacre was carried out against Israeli civilians, as a day that “no child was dancing”. “Many children lost their lives”.
Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to the UK, Oren Marmorstein, declared that “this is not a war about land. This is a war about humanity”.
This evening, the Deputy Prime Minister spoke at a vigil for Israel in Hertfordshire. In his address he said that “there is a state of Israel and that state of Israel has an army that will defend it, and that state of Israel has true friends and allies around the world, including in this the United Kingdom. And together we will prevail, we will defeat this terrorism.”
Anthony Browne MP has written in Conservative Home arguing that “Israel must win the peace as well as the war”.
He highlights that “Hamas is a terrorist group both in law and in fact: babies and grannies do not present any military threat, and the only reason to decapitate them or executive them on Facebook is to create terror. The BBC refusing to call Hamas “terrorists” is not being neutral, it is taking sides with antisemites”.
Browne underscores that “normalisation of relations between the Arab world and Israel is devastating for Hamas, killing off its dream of destroying Israel. It undermines support for Hamas and the Palestinian leadership in the Arab World, showing them up as isolated because they are interested in conflict rather than peace”.
He reasons that “we need to ensure that Hamas does not succeed in its objective of stopping recent progress towards peace in the Middle East. Ultimately, with the eradication of Hamas, this could in the end turn out to be an opportunity to secure a stable two-station solution. Only the continuation of the Abraham Accords will give Israelis and Palestinians – and the wider Middle East – the peace they so deserve”.
1,400 Israelis have been killed in Hamas’ deadly massacre on Saturday 7th October, including a woman and child found today from Kibbutz Be’eri inside a burned house. Due to the scale of deaths and the torture the victims went through, 732 killed have so far been identified and their families notified.
Over 7,100 rockets have been fired towards Israel from the Gaza Strip since Saturday 7th October. To date 450 rockets launched from terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip have fallen short, harming innocent civilians in Gaza. In previous rounds of conflict, some 30% of rocket launches from the Gaza Strip fell short.
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket, yesterday evening fell short, exploding in the car park of Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry said hundreds of people died in the explosion. The IDF have data, imagery, and phone recordings to prove that it was not Israel who attacked the hospital and have shared their information with world leaders.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, leaders across the Arab world and the media worldwide accused Israel of hitting the hospital. The Israeli Embassy in Amman, Jordan was attacked as well as the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon. Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, West Bank, was also attacked. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of national morning to mark the “genocide” at the hospital.
After an in-depth investigation, the IDF revealed that that the attack on the Ahli hospital was not due to an IAF strike but rather due to a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
In a press conference, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said that “the IDF has concluded an after-action review and confirm that the Islamic Jihad was responsible for the strike at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. We did an immediate review with all relevant branches of the IDF”.
“This is what took place on Tuesday, October 17. At 6:15pm a barrage of rockets was fired by Hamas to Israel. Then, at 6:59pm, a barrage of around 10 rockets was fired by Islamic Jihad from a nearby cemetery”.
“It was at the time that 6:59pm When there were reports of an explosion at the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. According to our intelligence, Hamas check the reports, understood it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that had misfired and decided to launch a global media campaign to hide what really happened. They went as far as inflating the numbers of casualties”.
“Analysis of our aerial footage confirms that there was no direct hit to the hospital itself. The only location damage is outside the hospital in the parking lot, where we can see signs of burning”.
“No cratering and no structural damage to nearby buildings, as opposed to the damage caused by any aerial munition which would have been of different nature. We would have seen craters and structural damage to the buildings, both of which haven’t been identified in this incident. The size of the damage we see here is due to the warhead of the Islamic Jihad rocket. But most of the rocket’s propellant is still evident due to the short flight of the rocket because the launch failed”.
In an online statement yesterday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “the entire world should know: it was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF”. “Those who brutally murdered our children will also murder their own children”, he added.
This morning U.S. President Biden arrived in Israel to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog. In a statement President Biden said: “It appears the hospital explosion was done by the other team, not [Israel]”.
Hezbollah attacks on Israel’s northern border continue to increase. Today the Government approved the evacuation of residents up to five kilometres from the Lebanese border. Hezbollah has targeted Israeli surveillance equipment and CCTV Cameras on the border, and an ATGM was fired from Lebanon at an Israeli army post this morning. Today, nine rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Kiryat Shmona, with four intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome. The IDF responded with artillery fire, striking two anti-tank missile launch positions.
Hezbollah has announced the death of members Taha Abbas Abbas who was killed “performing Jihad” and Ali Muhammed Marmar. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office has advised against all travel to Lebanon.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, 3,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. It remains unknown how many are Hamas terrorists or civilians.
IAF airstrikes continue to target Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad capabilities in the Gaza Strip. Two further senior Hamas operatives have been killed; Muhammad Awdallah, commander of the anti-tank missile system in Gaza City, and Akram Hijazi, from the Hamas naval forces, responsible for directing terror attacks on Israel.
This evening Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi agreed to open the Rafah crossing to allow 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza.
During this difficult time please consider donating to Magen David Adom’s urgent appeal https://mdauk.org/
Please also email your MP to share your support with Israel. You can do this via We Believe in Israel: https://tinyurl.com/mr2rcbej
