By Gordon Dimmack
I remember seeing the front page of the Metro in the immediate aftermath of October 7th. That image. That headline. The same one now burned into a million minds. And that’s not an exaggeration. The Metro alone reaches over a million people a day on public transport across the UK. It’s distributed free of charge. If you’ve ever been on public transport in the UK you’ll know — a stack by the bus door, and almost every single person getting on or off picks one up.
“40 babies murdered by Hamas.” “Children beheaded.” The headlines that justified everything. The entire media in this country had similar headlines. Atrocity propaganda went into overdrive. David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, described the scene to Sky News – “Babies, raped..” he said confidently.
The airstrikes. The flattening of homes. The silencing of protest. The criminalisation of conscience. That one lie has led us here — to a place where holding a sign, wearing a scarf, or speaking up for Palestine might now get you arrested.
And the kicker? It was never true.
The Claim: “Hamas beheaded 40 babies”
- Originally pushed by i24 News (Israeli state-affiliated outlet)
- Amplified by Benjamin Netanyahu’s office
- Spread virally through US and UK media
- Repeated by Joe Biden (and later walked back)
- Used by UK tabloids — Metro, Mail, Express, Sun — to justify collective punishment in Gaza
How many in this country still believe those headlines?
To the best of my knowledge, not a single publication has published a retraction. Not one. Hundreds of thousands, millions of people in this country still believe those lies. I still see people repeating these lies verbatim to this day underneath my posts.
This is how the genocide in Palestine began. With a media publishing atrocity propaganda without any due diligence whatsoever. It’s not just journalistic malpractice. It’s criminal.
The Debunking: Max Blumenthal’s Greyzone Investigation
Max cross-referenced the names published by Haaretz and Israeli authorities. He investigated all known fatalities from October 7 at Kibbutz Be’eri — the site where the 40 babies claim supposedly originated.
His conclusion? Only one baby was confirmed dead. And he wasn’t beheaded. He was killed by a bullet in crossfire.
Nationwide, 36 children died on October 7th including one infant under 1 year old which was killed in crossfire. A terrible crime, yes. But no evidence supports the “babies beheaded” headlines.
I’ve personally seen dozens of beheaded babies in the last 20 months — Palestinian babies. On video. Their heads blown apart by bombs. One of them wasn’t even born yet. A fetus. Lost it’s head while in the womb when the IDF killed it’s mother. But their beheadings don’t get reported. That’s not newsworthy. That’s not how the propaganda machine works. That won’t be helpful to Israel. And so the lie lives on.
Not a single mainstream outlet in this country has ever run a headline for them. No front page. No outrage. No name. No image of a puppy.
Cross-referenced: Israeli Casualty Lists
- Published by journalists like Oren Ziv and Yuval Abraham at +972 Magazine
- Cross-referenced by Haaretz, Hewlett, and others
- Now archived and publicly accessible
- No evidence of 40 babies killed — none of beheadings
- “1200 Israeli dead” includes civilians caught in crossfire, soldiers, and dozens reportedly killed by Israeli tank fire (source: Haaretz)
It is also highly doubtful that all those who died on October 7 were killed by Hamas.
Burned Cars, Buried Evidence
I’ve heard it again and again — “Hamas killed 1200 people.” That figure is repeated like scripture in UK media. But it’s a lie. Even Haaretz has reported that many of those killed were victims of Israel’s own “Hannibal Directive” — a policy which allows lethal force to prevent soldiers being captured, even at the cost of Israeli civilian lives.
Burned bodies. Shredded vehicles. The Cradle reported that many of the burned-out cars at the Nova festival site were shredded and buried before forensic analysis could be done. Hamas didn’t have rockets capable of that sort of destruction at the festival. AK47’s can’t turn dozens of cars into mangled and burned out ruins. Apache helicopters and Hellfire missiles can, though.
Bodies were buried fast. Evidence wasn’t just lost — it was erased.
A lie on repeat is as good as a sentence.
Legal Implications of Disinformation
So let’s talk law. According to the UK government’s own definitions — found in its mis/dis/malinformation guidance — the media in this country have engaged in behaviour that ticks every box:
- Disinformation: Information that is knowingly false, created or shared to cause harm or manipulate opinion.
- Malinformation: Information that is based on reality but used to inflict harm through context, framing, or omission.
Knowingly publishing a false atrocity story — then failing to issue a formal retraction — absolutely qualifies.
It’s also dangerous. This kind of disinformation doesn’t just stain the front pages. It stains real life. I’ve stood outside the Ecuadorian Embassy during the Assange protests and heard passersby shout “rapist” from their car windows. That lie — repeated endlessly by the press — stuck. Even though Julian Assange was never charged with rape. Even though the Swedish women involved never accused him of it. The lie was useful, so it lived.
This is what disinformation looks like in practice. It distorts justice. It criminalises resistance. It puts people like me — and you — in the crosshairs of unjust laws.
The Conclusion
Make no mistake, this post is not a defence of Hamas. It’s a reckoning with a media that lied to you-and used those lies to fuel a genocide. And they’ve been doing it every day since.
If this country wants to start prosecuting people for the things they’ve said regarding Israel and Palestine in the last 21 months, let’s not start with those in the streets chanting slogans…
Let’s start with the newsrooms.
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