UK-based news outlet Jewish Chronicle is facing outrage in Israel and among its readers, after it published unsubstantiated claims that the IDF found documents indicating Hamas planned to smuggle hostages out of Gaza to Iran through the Philadelphi Corridor.
The paper said it severed ties with the freelance reporter. "It's every newspaper editor's worst nightmare to be deceived by a journalist," Chronical editor Jake Wallis Simons wrote on his X account on Sunday adding several columnists have said they would no longer work with the publication.
The incident came to a head after the UKs Jewish Chronicle, and Germany’s Bild, the largest and most influential newspaper in the country — claimed to expose highly confidential internal Hamas documents seized by the IDF, allegedly taken from the terror group's leader Yahya Sinwar's personal belongings.
Both publications echoed what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had claimed in speeches and interviews last week claiming that Sinwar was trying to sow discord among the Israeli public, had no real interest in a hostage deal and planned to smuggle hostages via underground tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor to Egypt and from there to Iran.
An inquiry into all the materials collected from the start of the IDF operation in the Strip showed that no unit knew where these materials were sent nor what the source for the information allegedly obtained by the outlets, was.
The Bild, attributed the information to a proposal from another Hamas official. and the claim that Hamas was not interested in a deal, was never mentioned.
Opposition lawmakers demanded that a criminal investigation be launched following allegations on Ynet and its sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth suggesting a forgery and leak of the alleged "Sinwar documents" to foreign media.
Meirav Cohen a lawmaker for Yesh Atid said lies must have consequences. "Those spreading blatant falsehoods for political purposes must pay the price – whether they're low-ranking individuals or, even more so, senior officials."
"This is a cynical and dangerous misuse of classified documents, and as a body overseeing Israel's defense establishment, it’s our duty to discuss it, understand how it happened and determine what can be done to prevent the recurrence of leaks of classified information held by the IDF."