CNN journalist apologises over Hamas headless babies claim
A CNN journalist apologised for falsely saying that Hamas had been beheading babies, reports fact-checking website Snopes, October 16.
Was former American President Donald Trump right all along? Popular news channel CNN recently aired a clip in which one of their journalists claimed that babies were killed by the Palestinian militant group.
CNN was strongly critical of Trump before, during and after his stint as US President which prompted him to constantly attack the American news network, mostly claiming that they were dishonest.
The CNN journalist in question, Sara Sidner took to Twitter (now known as X) to apologise for the misleading remarks.
She wrote, “Yesterday (October 11) the Israeli Prime Minister’s office said that it had confirmed Hamas beheaded babies & children while we were live on the air. The Israeli government now says today it CANNOT confirm babies were beheaded. I needed to be more careful with my words and I am sorry.”
After the false claims on October 11, CNN published an article the following day titled, “Israeli official says government cannot confirm babies were beheaded in Hamas attack”.
The article clarified that the Israeli government did not confirm that babies were killed during Hamas’ shock attack on the country earlier this month.
On October 7, the Iran-backed group killed 1,400 people and held between 150 and 200 people hostage.
Following Sidner’s claims, the White House noted that,”President Joe Biden and other US officials have not seen or independently confirmed that Hamas terrorists beheaded Israeli children,”.
Israel has since retaliated multiple times in the Gaza Strip, under the control of Hamas since 2007, and it is believed that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) were responsible for the October 17 attacks on a Gaza-based hospital.
Following this, Israel used media and diplomatic channels in an attempt to distance themselves from the attack, saying to leaders of Arab countries that the explosions were caused by a misfiring militant missile.
Snopes
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