Gal Gadot gives prize money to Israeli group behind 'babies in ovens' hoax

Israeli actress Gal Gadot has donated part of a $3 million prize to a Jewish rescue group whose leader and members were behind the false claim that babies were put in ovens during the 7 October 2023 attacks.

Gadot won the prize money, which will be given to two dozen non-profits in Israel, after being named the 2026 Genesis Prize, known in the country as the "Jewish Nobel".

Part of the money will be given to the United Hatzalah volunteer rescue service, whose workers and founder were the source of several unevidenced claims repeated by advocates of Israel's brutal war on Gaza, which has killed over 70,000 Palestinians.

United Hatzalah President Eli Beer claimed to have witnessed the aftermath of babies burned in ovens by Palestinian fighters - an assertion he related to the Republican Jewish Convention in Las Vegas shortly after the 7 October attacks.

Beer also made other claims about alleged atrocities, which have never been proven and are now widely considered to have been false.

"The soldiers sliced open the stomach of a pregnant mother, took out the baby, and stabbed the little tiny baby in front of her and then shot her in front of her family," he told the convention, in remarks which were circulated by international media outlets.

Beer also said he had seen beheaded children.

"I saw little kids who were beheaded. We didn’t know which head belonged to which kid,” he said, amid similar claims made by Israeli figures about Hamas beheading 40 babies. 

Beer told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) that he had heard the stories from two of United Hatzalah's rescue workers.

Asher Moskowitz, a United Hatzalah first responder, was quoted at the time telling international media outlets that he had personally seen the remains of a baby who had been baked to death.

“They took the baby and put it, literally, in a kitchen oven,” Moskowitz said.

The atrocity claims came at a time when Israel was inviting foreign journalists to some of the attack sites, and holding screenings about the attacks to press their narrative. The atrocity claims were repeated, often uncritically, by Western journalists, some of whom later retracted their comments.

Another organisation which will receive money from Gadot's prize is Bshvil Hamachar, described by the Genesis Foundation as "Israel's leading nonprofit organisation dedicated to the mental health and well-being of Israeli combat veterans and reservists, helping them and their families cope with war trauma through transformative journeys in nature".

Gadot has served in the Israeli military herself, including during Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon.

Following the 7 October attacks, Gadot encouraged her social media followers to "stand with Israel".