On December 7, lawyer Irakli Zakareishvili published several Facebook posts (1;2;3), claiming that Israeli soldiers broke into a school located in Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip, where thousands of refugees were hiding. According to Zakareishvili, the Jews stripped all people over 15 years of age and executed them in front of women and children. Zakareishvili further notes that Israel is spreading lies as if it conducted an operation against Hamas. According to his information, an Al-Jazeera journalist is among those arrested.
Irakli Zakareishvili disseminates partly false information. According to the Israel Defense Forces, hundreds of terrorism suspects have been detained and interrogated. Some of them were released later. The information about their alleged execution is not confirmed.
On December 7, photos and videos appeared showing at least 100 people with their hands tied sitting on the ground. In part of the videos, they are being taken by a military vehicle. The material was shot in the north of the Gaza Strip. According to the information of the Israel Defense Forces, people who were suspected of being members of Hamas were arrested. Some of them were released later.
The locals surrendered to the 261st Reserve Brigade of Israel. According to Daniel Hagari, a representative of the Israel Defense Forces, Jabalia and Shejaiya are “Hamas strongholds and centres of gravity.” An Israeli government spokesman told the BBC that all of those arrested were of military age and were found where civilians had to be evacuated weeks ago.
In addition, Israel reports that many members of Hamas have surrendered to them in the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli Defense Forces, the detainees were in areas close to where fighting was taking place, deliberately wearing civilian clothes and operating from residential buildings. As government spokesman Eylon Levy told CNN, all of the people in the photos were suspected of terrorism. In his own words “When we find military-aged men in areas that we have been urging an evacuation of for over a month – because these are Hamas strongholds where we have seen intense urban fighting – we need to apprehend those people, work out who the terrorists are. And if there are people there who are not, in fact, terrorists they will, of course, be released.”
According to an eyewitness interview with BBC Arabic, the Israel Defense Forces entered Beit Lahia and used megaphones to order the men from their homes and UN relief agency (UNRWA) schools, and ordered the women to go to nearby hospitals, later threatening to shoot them if the men did not leave the buildings. The man says that 10 of his relatives were arrested, 7 of whom were released later, and he has no information about the other three.
Among those detained is a Palestinian journalist, Diaa Al-Kahlout, who worked for al-Araby al-Jadeed. He was arrested along with his brothers and relatives. The publication condemned the arrest of the journalist and called on the international community, journalists’ rights defenders and observers, as well as human rights protection bodies, to condemn “Israel’s attack on journalists.”
Videos and photos show men half-naked. The viral footage has raised questions about whether Israel is violating detention procedures and demeaning detainees by forcing them to undress. Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said on December 10 that suspects need to be searched to ensure they are not carrying weapons or explosives, but that the release of photos of people in their underwear is in no one’s interest, and he expected the distribution by Israel of such photos would cease. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said the humiliating photos had not been released by his office and that troops would change the arrest procedure in cases where it was not being properly followed.
Irakli Zakareishvili claims that the people depicted in the video were executed publicly, which is not true – we do not find information in the local media or Western media, and there is no footage of the incident or eyewitness comments regarding this.
About the Source
Lawyer Irakli Zakareishvili often publishes posts with anti-Western, anti-Ukrainian, and anti-opposition content. Since the emergence of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023, the user has been spreading disinformation regularly. False information spread by Zakareishvili has been debunked by “Myth Detector” many times in the past.
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