On September 17th, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah terrorists across Lebanon appeared to combust spontaneously, killing at least nine people and injuring thousands of Hezbollah terrorists. This has also caused a wave of fake news and misinformation being promoted by anti-Israel influencers across social media.
1. Bassem Youssef is a comedian and former Egyptian TV host. In his most recent post on X, he claims Israel is capable of detonating phones and tablets whenever and wherever they wish. This claim is entirely false, as Israel possesses no such technology.
And suddenly my phone , our security system , my kids tablets are time bombs that detonate at the whims of one country . You win Israel . Not a single politician or late night show talks about this ? None of that worth the news ? Nothing “funny” can come out of it ? The whole…
— Bassem Youssef (@Byoussef) September 18, 2024
2. Jackson Hinkle, an influencer who’s been removed from every social media platform except for X for promoting misinformation, posted to his 2.7 million followers the false claim that “Israel killed mostly civilians in their pager attack, and ZERO members of Hezbollah’s senior command.”. Both Iranian state media and Hezbollah themselves have confirmed that several Hezbollah terrorists have died.
Israel killed mostly civilians in their pager attack, and ZERO members of Hezbollah’s senior command.
ISRAEL IS A TERRORIST STATE!
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) September 17, 2024
3. Influencer Syrian Girl (@Partisangirl) posted on X that Israel “didn’t target Hezbollah members. They targeted everyone with a pager…”. This is fake news; only the pagers belonging to Hezbollah operatives were reported to have been affected.
The Zionist terrorist didn’t target Hezbollah members. They targeted everyone with a pager including doctors and nurses, killing a child. This is a nation wide terrorist attack. pic.twitter.com/9ojtlDMuHg
— Syrian Girl 🇸🇾 (@Partisangirl) September 17, 2024
4. Sarah (@sahouraxo), an influencer on X and a self-described Independent Lebanese geopolitical commentator with over 622k followers, claims, “This is an Israeli terrorist attack against Lebanon and its citizens.” A false claim: only Hezbollah operatives were targeted, not Lebanese civilians.
This is an Israeli terrorist attack against Lebanon and its citizens.
Devices exploded among ordinary civilians in streets, homes, institutions, and shops, killing 8 people, including a child, and injuring over 3,000 across the country.
This is pure, unadulterated terrorism.
— sarah (@sahouraxo) September 17, 2024
5. Daniel Haqiqatjou, founder of the Anti-Semitic website MuslimSkeptic.com, makes several false claims in a series of posts on X, where he claims the attack targeted innocent Lebanese civilians and goes on a rant accusing Israel of “flooding all the Muslim countries it trades with with “ticking time bomb products,” such as drinks, beauty products, pharmaceuticals, and appliances.
All the Zionist news outlets are spamming that the pagers belonged to “terrorists,” so that confirms that these were innocent Lebanese civilians that the Jewish state has targeted.
— Daniel Haqiqatjou (@Haqiqatjou) September 17, 2024
What makes us think Israel hasn’t flooded all the Muslim countries it trades with with “ticking time bomb products,” like the pagers?
– slow acting toxins in foods, drinks
– carcinogen-laced beauty products
– re-engineered pharmaceuticals
– remotely-triggered explosives in…— Daniel Haqiqatjou (@Haqiqatjou) September 18, 2024
He also makes the false claim that “No Muslim has ever committed terrorism via mass-distributed consumer goods.”. Users on X were quick to fact-check, adding the context that in 1978, Palestinian extremists claimed responsibility for distributing Israeli oranges, lemons & grapefruit that had been tainted with mercury.
No Muslim has ever committed terrorism via mass distributed consumer goods.
This is a new type of terrorism invented and executed for the first time by the only Jewish state.
— Daniel Haqiqatjou (@Haqiqatjou) September 18, 2024
6. Nicholas Fuentes, a far-right American political commentator and live streamer known for promoting white supremacist and Anti-Semitic views, shared this Anti-Semitic conspiracy post to X.
If you buy anything from Jews there is a small chance that they have hidden remote controlled explosives inside of it that they can detonate from Israel at any time to blow up your face, hands, or legs.
— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) September 18, 2024
7. Owen Jones, a writer and YouTuber with over 1.1 million followers on X, did not say anything overtly false but made several comments referring to this precise and targeted operation as “an obscene terrorist attack.”
Leave aside that these pagers are used by doctors and nurses.
If Hezbollah blew up the phones or pagers of IDF soldiers, whether or not on duty, inevitably killing and maiming children and bystanders – he’d denounce this as an obscene terrorist attack.pic.twitter.com/Io1fQFsOKB https://t.co/3cen505orm
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) September 17, 2024
Amit Harir is an intern for HonestReporting.
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