Reports of babies and children being killed on October 7 were fabricated

CLAIM:

Reports of babies and children being killed on October 7 were fabricated.

STATUS:

False

KEY COUNTERPOINTS:

1. The fabrication claim is absolutely false because OHCHR specifically confirmed that children were killed on October 7. The OHCHR Commission of Inquiry reported that 40 Israeli children were killed during the attack, including at least 23 boys and 15 girls confirmed by the Commission. It also reported that three of the children killed were under three years old, and that children were killed in civilian villages and towns including Be’eri, Nir Oz, Zikim beach, and Kfar Aza. That alone destroys the claim that reports of babies and children being killed were fabricated.

2. The child-victim record is named, specific, and documented, not an anonymous atrocity slogan. Confirmed named cases include Mila Cohen, a 9-month-old baby killed in Be’eri; Shahar and Arbel Siman Tov, 6-year-old twin girls killed in Nir Oz; Omer Siman Tov, a 4-year-old boy killed with his family in Nir Oz; Noya Sharabi, 16, and Yahel Sharabi, 13, killed in Be’eri; and Rotem, Yonatan, and Yiftach Kotz, the children of the Kotz family killed in Kfar Aza. The point is not that every viral early story was accurate. The point is that named children were killed, with locations, families, and independent documentation.

3. Child hostage cases independently confirm that children were direct victims of the October 7 attack. OHCHR reported that 36 children were abducted to Gaza, including 10 abducted without parents or other family members. The youngest hostage was Kfir Bibas, 9 months old, abducted from Nir Oz with his mother Shiri and brother Ariel, age 4. Avigail Idan, age 3 at the time, was abducted from Kfar Aza after her parents were killed. These cases do not all prove children were killed on October 7 itself, but they directly refute the broader fabrication claim that child victimization was invented.

4. Forensic identification and official casualty systems make the “fabricated” claim structurally impossible. The Israeli National Insurance Institute says it receives casualty lists from the Israel Police after identification and family notification. OHCHR also records cases where remains were identified through DNA matching. In the Bibas case, AP reported that Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine identified the remains of Ariel and Kfir Bibas after their bodies were returned from Gaza. Fabrication claims require treating police identification, family notification, DNA identification, forensic institutes, international reporting, and hostage negotiations as one giant fake chain.

5. Perpetrator-recorded footage and verified digital material remove the “Israeli propaganda only” escape route. OHCHR states that it reviewed and verified digital footage, including footage published by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The attackers filmed parts of their own assault, abductions, and treatment of victims. A fabrication claim has to explain why the perpetrators themselves recorded and distributed material that confirms the attack and hostage-taking.

6. The correction of weak early atrocity stories does not erase verified child deaths. Some early reports were confused, exaggerated, or not forensically supported. That should be acknowledged directly. But the opponent’s argument abuses that correction by jumping from “some early reports were wrong” to “reports of babies and children being killed were fabricated.” That leap is false. After disputed claims are removed, the verified record still confirms killed children, abducted children, named victims, family destruction, forensic identification, and international documentation.

7. The burden of proof belongs to the person alleging fabrication. It is not enough to point at one mistaken early report. To defend this claim, the opponent must show that OHCHR, Israeli casualty records, named families, forensic identification, hostage documentation, survivor testimony, and perpetrator footage are all unreliable or fabricated. That is not a serious evidentiary burden. It is atrocity denial.

EVIDENCE:

• OHCHR A/HRC/56/CRP.3 reported that 40 Israeli children were killed during the October 7 attack, including at least 23 boys and 15 girls confirmed by the Commission.

• OHCHR reported that three of the children killed were under three years old, four were between ages three and six, ten were between six and fourteen, and twenty-one were between fourteen and eighteen.

• OHCHR reported that children were killed in civilian villages and towns, especially Be’eri, Nir Oz, Zikim beach, and Kfar Aza.

• OHCHR documented named child-killing cases, including the Siman Tov family in Nir Oz: Shahar and Arbel, age 6, and Omer, age 4, suffocated after militants set the family home on fire while the family was inside.

• OHCHR documented the death of Mila Cohen, a 9-month-old baby killed in Be’eri with her father Ohad Cohen and grandmother Yona Cohen.

• OHCHR reported that 36 children were abducted to Gaza, including 10 abducted without parents or other family members.

• OHCHR reported that in all child cases it investigated, children were killed as part of general attacks on communities, families, and homes, and that militants attacked with full knowledge that children were present.

• Israel’s National Insurance Institute listed 37 children aged 0 to 17 among fatal casualties, including 3 children aged up to 4 and 3 children aged 5. It also stated that casualty lists are received from Israel Police after identification and family notification.

• AP reported that the bodies of Ariel and Kfir Bibas were identified by Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine after Hamas returned bodies during the ceasefire process. Kfir was 9 months old when abducted, and Ariel was 4.

• Hope for Hostages lists hostages by name, age, photo, status, and kidnapping details. It records children among hostages and shows that 33 hostages aged 0 to 17 returned alive, while 2 hostages aged 0 to 17 were recovered dead.

• Le Monde’s investigation found that the “40 decapitated babies” story was false, but also confirmed that minors including infants were killed. That distinction is important: one false rumor does not erase verified child victims.

• The Hamas Massacre Documentation Archive and The Essential Guide to October 7th should be used as navigational evidence collections, not as substitutes for the OHCHR, National Insurance, AP, and forensic identification sources.

PRIMARY SOURCES:

OHCHR, Detailed Findings on Attacks Carried Out on and After 7 October 2023 in Israel (A/HRC/56/CRP.3)
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session56/a-hrc-56-crp-3.pdf
Independent UN Commission of Inquiry report. This is the strongest source because it confirms child fatalities, child abductions, named child cases, verified digital material, and war-crimes findings. It is not an Israeli government source.

“According to Israeli sources, 40 Israeli children (including at least 23 boys and 15 girls) were killed and hundreds more were wounded during the 7 October attack on Israel.” Page 33, para. 168.

“Of the children killed, three were under three years old; four were between the ages of three and six; 10 were between the ages of six and 14 and 21 were between the ages of 14-18.” Page 33, para. 168.

“Children were killed in civilian villages and towns, particularly in Be’eri, Nir Oz, Zikim beach and Kfar Aza.” Page 33, para. 168.

“Thirty-six children (14 boys and 22 girls) were abducted to Gaza, 10 of whom were abducted alone, without parents or other family members.” Page 33, para. 168.

“Six members of three generations of the Israeli-American Siman Tov family were killed by militants during the attack on kibbutz Nir Oz, including three children: six-year-old twin daughters, Shahar and Arbel, and four-year-old boy, Omer.” Page 34, para. 172.

“Both Tamar and Yonatan sustained gunshot wounds and died from the loss of blood, while their three children suffocated to death from the smoke.” Page 34, para. 172.

“In all the cases investigated by the Commission, children were killed as part of the general attacks on communities, families and homes.” Page 36, para. 188.

“The militants attacked with full knowledge that children were present and would be killed and injured, physically and psychologically.” Page 36, para. 188.

↑↑↑ Best source!

Hope for Hostages, Hostage List
https://www.hopeforhostages.com/
Public hostage database listing hostages by age, status, and category. Useful because it shows that child hostage cases are named and trackable, not abstract propaganda claims.

1. Kfir Bibas, 9 months — murdered
2. Aviv Katz-Asher, 2 — rescued
3. Yahel Shoham, 3 — rescued
4. Emma Cunio, 3 — rescued
5. Yuli Cunio, 3 — rescued
6. Avigail Idan, 4 — rescued
7. Oria Brodutch, 4 — rescued
8. Ariel Bibas, 4 — murdered
9. Emilia Alony, 5 — rescued
10. Raz Katz-Asher, 5 — rescued
11. Ella Elyakim, 8 — rescued
12. Nave Shoham, 8 — rescued
13. Yuval Brodutch, 8 — rescued
14. Emily Tony Korenberg-Hand, 8 — rescued
15. Ohad Munder-Zichri, 8 — rescued
16. Tal Goldstein-Almog, 9 — rescued
17. Ofri Brodutch, 10 — rescued
18. Gal Goldstein-Almog, 11 — rescued
19. Yuval Engel, 11 — rescued
20. Eitan Yahalomi, 12 — rescued
21. Erez Kalderon, 12 — rescued
22. Noam Avigdori, 12 — rescued
23. Alma Or, 13 — rescued
24. Gal Tarshansky, 13 — rescued
25. Hila Rotem-Shoshani, 13 — rescued
26. Yagil Yaakov, 13 — rescued
27. Dafna Elyakim, 15 — rescued
28. Amit Shani, 15 — rescued
29. Or Yaakov, 16 — rescued
30. Sahar Kalderon, 16 — rescued
31. Agam Goldstein-Almog, 17 — rescued
32. Aisha Al-Ziadna, 17 — rescued
33. Mia Leimberg, 17 — rescued
34. Noam Or, 17 — rescued
35. Ofir Engel, 17 — rescued

↑↑↑ best source!

Israel National Insurance Institute, Data on casualties
https://www.btl.gov.il/English%20Homepage/About/PressReleases/Pages/Milcama.aspx
Official Israeli civilian casualty administration source. Useful because it gives a separate casualty-record track and explains that the National Insurance Institute receives casualty lists after police identification and family notification.

“Among the fatal casualties was also recognized the fetus of a seriously injured woman whose fetus did not survive, as well as 37 children (aged from 0 to 17), including only 3 children aged up to 4 and 3 children aged 5.”

“As mentioned, the National Insurance receives the list of casualties from the Israel Police after identification and notification to the family.”

↑↑↑ best source!

Associated Press, Israel identifies remains of child hostages but says another body from Hamas was not their mother
https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-ceasefire-hostages-02-20-2025-4c2ffabae1771cff1a9542fddfaf7d07
Independent report on the return and forensic identification of hostage remains, including Ariel and Kfir Bibas. Use for the child-hostage and forensic-identification angle, not as proof that they were killed on October 7.

“Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine had identified the boys.”

“Kfir Bibas, who was 9 months old at the time… His brother, Ariel, was 4.”

↑↑↑ best source!

Hamas Massacre Documentation Archive
Important Websites

• https://www.hamas-massacre.net/
  CONTENT WARNING! ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑ Viewer Discretion is Advised
  Central internal archive compiling footage, testimony, and documentation of the October 7 attacks. Primary reference for the full evidentiary base.

↑↑↑ best source!

BBC, Hamas hostage accounts and investigation
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67053011
Independent journalism source for hostage accounts and abduction reporting. Keep it in the source stack, but use OHCHR, AP, and Hope for Hostages for the strongest child-specific facts.

“253 people, from babies to the elderly, were kidnapped, leaving families and communities in limbo.”

↑↑↑ mid source

The Essential Guide to October 7th
The Essential Guide To October 7th.pdf
Compiled documentation of the October 7 attacks, including civilian killings, abductions, and child-victim cases. Use as a navigational source inside the archive, not as the main proof source.

quote needed if page used

↑↑↑ mid source

• Le Monde, “40 beheaded babies: Deconstructing the rumor at the heart of the information battle between Israel and Hamas”
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2024/04/03/40-beheaded-babies-the-itinerary-of-a-rumor-at-the-heart-of-the-information-battle-between-israel-and-hamas_6667274_8.html
Useful guardrail source. It prevents overclaiming by separating the false “40 decapitated babies” rumor from the verified fact that minors and infants were killed.

“in this massacre, in which 38 minors including two infants were killed, there were never 40 decapitated babies.”

“Two babies were killed, including Mila Cohen, 10 months old.”

↑↑↑ mid source

STRONGEST COUNTER ARGUMENTS WORTH KNOWING:

• The opponent will cite the “40 beheaded babies” retraction as proof that all atrocity reports were fabricated or exaggerated, arguing that if one detail was wrong the whole narrative is unreliable.

• Some will argue that early Israeli reporting was systematically inflated for propaganda purposes and that forensic access was controlled, making independent verification difficult in the immediate aftermath.

• Both arguments fail on the same ground: the child hostage cases are named, photographed, and internationally confirmed through diplomatic channels involving Qatar, Egypt, and the United States. The OHCHR findings came from an independent investigation. And Hamas itself distributed footage of the attack. None of that evidentiary base depends on the disputed “40 beheaded babies” claim.

NOTES:

The fabrication claim almost always relies on the “40 beheaded babies” retraction as its entry point. The tactical move is to separate those two questions immediately and explicitly: whether one early unverified detail was wrong is a different question from whether children were killed and abducted. Forcing that separation removes the opponent’s entire argumentative foundation.

The Kfir Bibas case is the most powerful individual rebuttal. He was nine months old. He has a name, a face, a family, and a confirmed death in captivity acknowledged by international mediators. Ask the opponent to explain how a nine-month-old hostage with a confirmed identity and a confirmed death in captivity was fabricated.

The perpetrator-footage argument is the structural closer. Hamas filmed and distributed its own attack. The fabrication claim requires the opponent to argue that Hamas was also fabricating footage of events it was simultaneously claiming credit for. That is not a coherent position.

If someone cannot accept facts confirmed by the perpetrators themselves, the UN, and dozens of governments, no archive entry will fix that. Even less time should be spent on those who do not just deny it, but support it.

see more:

Detailed findings on attacks carried out on and after 7 October 2023 in Israel.pdf
The Essential Guide To October 7th.pdf
Pramila Patten Mission Report, March 2024.pdf

RELATED CLAIMS:

October 7 did not happen
Civilians were not intentionally targeted on October 7, 2023
Hostages were not taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023
Hamas only attacked military targets on October 7, 2023