The Israel Police arrested a 33-year-old man for spreading false rumors of hostage rescue from Hamas captivity in Gaza.
During his interrogation, the suspect apologized multiple times, claiming he heard the news from friends and was unaware it was false. He is accused of disturbing the peace by knowingly spreading false rumors meant to incite fear and panic. "We will not tolerate actions that harm the feelings of hostage families," a source in the police said. The suspect was placed on house arrest for five days.
Rumers of a rescue of hostages spread quickly around the country, causing false hopes and distress to the families of the captives. The IDF spokesperson made three public statements saying there was no rescue and asking the pubic not to spread unreliable news.
Meanwhile, TikTok blocked the suspect's accounts. "Spreading misinformation is prohibited on our platform," the company said after it had faced criticism throughout the war for amplifying pro-Palestinian content while suppressing pro-Israeli material.
The suspect's account called "The Shadow 7000," has more than 52,000 followers. On Saturday he posted a video to his followers, claiming that 30 families had been informed that their loved ones had been rescued from Hamas captivity—some alive, some dead.
"There was a very emotional rescue operation that lasted nearly three hours," he said in the video, making him one of the main sources of the false rumors that the IDF had to publicly deny three times within 24 hours. "Unfortunately, there are both good and less good news. This was a significant operation, and it will be remembered in history. Please, for those of you waiting anxiously for updates, continue to be patient."
Ironically, in his posts, the suspect urged his followers to refrain from spreading false information, saying it harmed the families of the hostages: "Please don’t spread fake news or rumors. Everyone keeps sending me guesses—stop it. There are families waiting for news about their loved ones. Please be considerate."
Later, the suspect posted another video, giving false details about hostages allegedly rescued alive, even naming them. One of the hostages he falsely claimed had been freed was lookout soldier Liri Albag, whose name was also spread in WhatsApp messages.
"At around 11 pm on Saturday, there was a surge of rumors about the rescue of hostages, Liri's mother Shira said. "We got messages from people and heard reports of something happening in Jabaliya and Rafah. There were rumors about helicopters at hospitals. We didn’t sleep all night. Things calmed down in the morning, but by noon, another wave of rumors started. People were sending us texts asking us what was going on," she said.
"It causes unbearable anxiety, making you wait for a knock on the door. Many times when rumors spread, there was some truth to them. We called the IDF officers we are in contact with, who said they didn’t know anything, but we didn’t know if we should believe them. There were so many specific rumors at the same time. We all took calming pills just to try to breathe. We posted on Liri’s Instagram, asking people to stop doing this.
"The names were specific, but then again, they were of families already prominent in the media. We wondered if maybe it was an Iranian bot spreading these rumors as psychological warfare. We thought, 'With so much talk, something must have happened. Maybe there was a terrible event with soldiers killed?' It’s just awful."
Gal Hirsch, Israel's coordinator for POWs and MIAs, has requested that police and the Shin Bet open a criminal investigation into the source of the rumors.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: