Farhad<p><strong>How 2 debunked accounts of sexual violence on Oct. 7 fueled a global dispute over Israel-Hamas war</strong></p><p><br>Chaim Otmazgin had tended to dozens of shot, burned or mutilated bodies before he reached the home that would put him at the center of a global clash.</p><p>Working in a kibbutz that was ravaged by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Otmazgin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Otmazgin</span></a> — a volunteer commander with <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=ZAKA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ZAKA</span></a>, an Israeli search and rescue organization — saw the body of a teenager, shot dead and separated from her family in a different room. Her pants had been pulled down below her waist. He thought that was evidence of sexual violence.</p><p>He alerted journalists to what he’d seen. He tearfully recounted the details in a nationally televised appearance in the Israeli Parliament. In the frantic hours, days and weeks that followed the Hamas attack, his testimony ricocheted across the world.</p><p>But it turns out that what Otmazgin thought had occurred in the home at the kibbutz hadn’t happened.</p><p>Beyond the numerous and well-documented atrocities committed by <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Hamas" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hamas</span></a> militants on Oct. 7, some accounts from that day, like Otmazgin’s, proved untrue.</p><p>“It’s not that I invented a story,” Otmazgin told The Associated Press in an interview, detailing the origins of his initial explosive claim — one of two by ZAKA volunteers about sexual violence that turned out to be unfounded.</p><p>“I couldn’t think of any other option” other than the teen having been sexually assaulted, he said. “At the end, it turned out to be different, so I corrected myself.”</p><p>But it was too late.<br><a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=October7" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>October7</span></a> <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=StopTheLies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>StopTheLies</span></a> <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Propaganda" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Propaganda</span></a> <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Missinformation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Missinformation</span></a> <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Media" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Media</span></a> <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=Genocide" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Genocide</span></a> <a href="https://venera.social/search?tag=RapeAsWeapon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RapeAsWeapon</span></a><br>(I shared the whole story, in case it's edited or removed)<br><a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-sexual-violence-zaka-ca7905bf9520b1e646f86d72cdf03244" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">apnews.com/article/israel-hama…</a><br><span class="h-card"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/palestine" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>palestine</span></a></span> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/israel" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>israel</span></a></span></p>