Israel 'shares fake Palestinian names' of Gaza strike victims to justify attacks

The government in Gaza has accused Israel of sharing fake names of Palestinians killed in the territory to justify its recent attacks, in violation of the ceasefire deal.

Israel’s military conducted heavy airstrikes on the Gaza Strip Tuesday and into Wednesday, claiming that it was targeting "terrorists" and killing 109 people, including 52 children and 23 women.

The escalation followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s order for "powerful strikes" on the war-torn enclave.

Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, justified this by claiming that Hamas had delayed handing over the remains of Israeli captives. He also blamed Hamas for the killing of a soldier by a sniper in Rafah, even though the area is under full Israeli control.

Hamas said it had nothing to do with the sniper attack.

After the Israeli military shared the names of 26 people targeted in the strikes whom it claimed to be Palestinian militants, the Gaza government’s media office said Wednesday that some of them were fake.

It said the Israeli occupation continues its "systematic campaign of deception, falsification, and the spread of lies aimed at distorting the truth and covering up its ongoing crimes" against civilians in the Strip.

In a statement, the media office said that Israel had published "a list of 26 names – including 21 photos – claiming they belonged to people killed during its latest brutal assault, which took place over the past 24 hours.

"Upon review, it was found that the list included three incorrect, non-Arab names that don’t appear in official Palestinian records, as well as fictious names that don’t even exist."

The statement said that the Israeli military included the names of four people who were neither killed nor present in the areas hit, and who are in fact still alive.

It added that some names were altered to make it appear as if they were different individuals.

"The list also contained names of people who were killed in completely different locations and at different times from those announced, which indicates that the publication of this list was part of a deliberate media disinformation campaign aimed at justifying Israel’s crimes and vilifying the victims."

The ceasefire, which came into effect on 10 October, was meant to allow humanitarian relief and a gradual return to calm. Instead, Israel has carried out repeated airstrikes and tightened restrictions on aid deliveries.

Since the ceasefire began, Palestinian factions have handed over 20 living Israeli captives and about 15 bodies. Some were killed by Israeli strikes during the war; others died at the start of the war on 7 October 2023 when Palestinian militants stormed southern Israel.

The two-year war killed more than 68,100 Palestinians in Gaza and is widely recognised to be a genocide.

Much of Gaza has been left in ruins, and most of the enclave’s population of over 2 million has been displaced.