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‘Magic Bullets:’ Did the New York Times Publish Forged Evidence of Israeli Atrocities?

Aaron Walker
Aaron Walker  |  3:30 PM on October 14, 2024
AP Photo/Leo Correa

We are asking a question with this headline, because we don’t pretend to know for sure. What we are hoping is to start a conversation about whether or not the evidence put forth by the New York Times was forged, or not. Bluntly, we are hoping for a strong discussion in our comment section or even by the new direct messages to this author available for Platinum users. Or just hit this author up at @aaronworthing on Twitter/X.

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It started with a ‘Guest Essay’ in the New York Times by a person named Feroze Sidhwa, described as a ‘trauma and general surgeon who worked at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, for two weeks in March and April.’ You can read the whole thing, here:

The person sharing and ‘gifting’ this piece to the world is a man named Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib who describes himself as follows: 

Proud American; native Gazan; pro-Palestine, pro-Peace, anti-Hamas, anti-occupation, Two State Solution; Resident Senior Fellow @AtlanticCouncil. Views my own

The piece itself makes a series of startling allegations against Israel:

[O]f the many things that stood out about working in a hospital in Gaza, one got to me: Nearly every day I was there, I saw a new young child who had been shot in the head or the chest, virtually all of whom went on to die. Thirteen in total.

At the time, I assumed this had to be the work of a particularly sadistic soldier located nearby. But after returning home, I met an emergency medicine physician who had worked in a different hospital in Gaza two months before me. ‘I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head,’ I told him. To my surprise, he responded: ‘Yeah, me, too. Every single day.’

What it amounts to he is was claiming that these children were being sniped, and allegedly using special bullets that the IDF uses:

The cut off text reads:

These volunteers describe in painful detail the extent of horror they saw firsthand, including mass killings, malnutrition, targeting of civilians, and repeated and documented patterns of IDF soldiers behaving ruthlessly toward Palestinian noncombatants throughout the war in Gaza. 

 It is indisputable that horrendous war crimes were and are continuing to be committed in the Gaza war, no matter the claims to the contrary. Hamas's criminality and terrorism on October 7 can never justify this behavior by a professional military with clear rules of engagement and codes of conduct. There must be accountability for these crimes.  Gift article link below.

Can you believe it?! Israel is intentionally killing children. Allegedly.

And you can even see the allegedly damning x-rays, with the bullets in the children’s bodies in that post.

Now, we’re going to level with you. While we think we are excellent in our defense of the Second Amendment, we are not exactly experts on guns, ballistics, or how a bullet wound would look on an x-ray and so on. But we started by asking the most basic question: Even if these were ‘5.56 rounds used by the IDF’ surely other people can use the same rounds, right?

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One person attempted to reply:

And that led to other people questioning other aspects of this story. Take 2A History, on Twitter/X (@2aHistory). He focuses on the history behind the Second Amendment—including historic military technology. He wrote the following when responding to this author joking about how ridiculous it was to assume that only the IDF could use that type of bullet:

That first line is probably better phrased in context as ‘[imagine] [t]hinking that 5.56 rounds will stop inside the neck or head of a child...’

Someone else suggested that the x-rays are digitally altered:

And others shared their viewpoints:

The cut off text reads:

It is highly unlikely that most bullets would enter exctly from the front or back of a head,  no matter how the person is positioned or which direction they are looking, perfectly positioned for a lateral X-ray image.

But they make for great photos. 

https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2024/10/evidence-mounts-that-nytimes-published.html

But besides those views, we started to see self-proclaimed experts who gave much more detailed analysis, such as:

The cut off text reads:

The NYT lied or failed to verify the information presented to them. This is based on the MV and BC of the M855 Ball ammo currently being used by the IDF. 

(https://nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/09/opinion/gaza-doctor-interviews.html?unlocked_article_code=1.RU4.aKAi.2JuzZxYawEZ-&smid=url-share)

| Analysis |

Dr. Mimi stated she worked in Khan Younis from Aug. 8 to Sept. 5. The IDF announced on Aug 9th, 2024 they were beginning another ground operation in Khan Younis. Major combat operations by the IDF were completed on Aug 30th.

This means Dr. Mimi was on the ground in Khan Younis for the entire operation according to her claim. Dr. Mimi Syed provided these pictures to the NYT and stated:

 ‘I had multiple pediatric patients, mostly under the age of 12, who were shot in the head or the left side of the chest. Usually, these were single shots. The patients came in either dead or critical, and died shortly after arriving.’

There are two issues with her accusations provided in the photo's and statements.

1- Accuracy

2- Velocity and Penetration

| Ballistics Of The M855 Fired From A 14’ Barrel (M4) |

Muzzle Velocity: 2,841 ft/s

Ballistic Coefficient: 0.151 (G7 Drag Scale)

Accuracy: About 4 Minutes Of Angle (MOA)

Even at sea level with high humidity, the M855 fired from an M4 will remain supersonic beyond 500 meters. The M855 Green Tip ammo is designed to penetrate body armor and defeat barricades/cover. 

However, this comes at a cost in accuracy. An M4 shooting the M855 round has an average accuracy of around 4 Minutes Of Angle. That is roughly a 4-inch shot group at 100 yards. At 200 yards, the shot group expands to 8 inches. At 300 yards, it increases to 12 inches. 

The average diameter of the adult male head is about 8 inches. The size of a child's head will vary based on age. Hitting a 4-inch to 8-inch target at greater than 100 meters with an M4 is a challenge on the range with stationary targets. In combat conditions with moving targets, it would be almost impossible. 

The M855 travels too fast at that range and is designed to penetrate. It would easily, without question, pass completely through a child's skull at those ranges. This leads to the next question. 

Were the x-ray images the result of ricochets? 

Well, no. When projectiles traveling that fast strike another object, they tend to deform and tumble. We would see that represented in the x-rays. We do not. 

Further, over 190,000 IDP's fled Khan Younis prior to the start of their combat operations on Aug 9th (see below)

| HISTORY OF KHAN YOUNIS |

According to Doctors Without Borders:

‘On July 22 and 27, the Israeli forces issued two evacuation orders in Khan Younis’

‘According to OCHA, from July 22 to 25, approximately 190,000 Palestinians were displaced in Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah.’

In 2017, Khan Younis population was above 205,000. It is more than fair to say the VAST MAJORITY of the population left following the warnings from the IDF. 

Khan Younis is Gaza's second-largest city and where the Nassar Hospital is located (likely where she worked). 

Following an IDF withdrawal from Khan Younis in April 2024, Nassar Hospital staff claimed the IDF had murdered Palestinians and buried them in mass graves outside of the hospital. This false claim was easily debunked. Even the NYT reported that 2 mass graves were on the grounds of the hospital prior to the operation. 

Other articles can be found as early as Jan 2024 quoting the hospital manager claiming hospital staff buried 100's of deceased patients on the grounds of the hospital. 

https://nytimes.com/2024/04/25/world/middleeast/gaza-mass-grave-nasser-hospital.html

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He also provides a useful link to real gunshot wounds:

That was one self-described expert that we came across. Here’s another:

The cut off text reads (with mild censorship):

As someone who is actually a forensic ballistics specialist, I wanted to respond to your post, and this article, with some facts that will demonstrate just how deliberately dishonest and inaccurate both your post and the article are:

1. The damage to the body by bullet shot depends on the weapon and caliber used. A small low caliber pistol will always have less damage than a high caliber rifle such as the 5.56 you and the article mention. 

2. The most important factor that determines the level of damage is velocity. And a 5.56 caliber high velocity rifle as is used by the IDF will therefore have a high degree of damage to the head and skull. None of the most obvious types of damage from any gunshot wound to the head nevertheless a 5.56 high velocity rifle shot are visible. 

3. When the bullet hits the skull at high velocity, it bevels into the skull, which means as it’s passing through the skull, the immediate entry is small and clean whereas the exit at the front of the skull inside the head is wider and flared. It splinters the skull bone on entry and creates bone shards that then move with the bullet and cause even more damage. 

4. Once the bullet enters the head, especially at high velocity, it heats up and creates a shockwave in front of the bullet which widens as the bullet travels through the head causing more damage. The brain is a solid, soft and highly inelastic organ, which means the damage to the brain is such that it literally mushes. The shockwave on entry causes external gases to enter the head in front of the bullet and thus significant displacement of brain matter very rapidly which in turn causes the head to expand rapidly thus causing primary and secondary fractures in various areas of the skull. NONE such fractures are visible in these X-rays. 

5. Back to the velocity of the 5.56 rifle shot, for any bullet to stop in the area shown in any of the X-ray images, the bullets would need to travel at very low velocity. That means either the bullets were fired by low velocity small caliber pistols or the rifle shots would need to have been fired from a very long distance (many hundreds of meters) with pinpoint accuracy. When looking at the images, the caliber of bullets are not the same. The first image has a much shorter bullet than the second, meaning it could not be the same caliber. 

Now if the children were deliberately shot in the head and neck, it would mean it would be from close range. With a high velocity 5.56 rifle of the type the IDF use, the bullet would never stop so quickly, ever. The bullet would travel so quickly due to VELOCITY that they would almost always exit the skull or body causing much larger exit wounds. None are visible as the bullets are all magically stopped for the perfect X-ray pose. As you can see, there is no damage to the brain in the X-rays. This is even more true of the neck shots where the bullets barely travel an inch and stop at the spine. This would happen only with very low velocity small caliber handguns such as .22 caliber pistols. 

6. Basically, for any of the X-rays to be true, these would need to be low velocity pistols, and not high velocity rifles. The distance of fire would still not be very close range, as the damage is not significant enough. Very close range has higher velocity thus more damage. 

I’m quite happy for any other ballistics experts to come and debate the post and article and my analysis above. What I can pretty comfortably say is that these are not head and neck shots by high velocity 5.56 rifles. At best these may be wounds from ricochets which would mean they are not deliberate and completely accidental, and also not from close range, but would account for the much lower velocity. At worst, and more likely, this entire post of yours, and the article, is complete and utter b—llsh—t . 

Thanks for reading. 

Cheryl

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Indeed, journalist Emily Schrader gathered several of these critiques:

The cut off text reads:

The only problem with this is the ‘evidence’ provided by those same ‘experts’ appears, according to analysis from numerous ballistics experts, radiologists, trauma nurses, medics, and more, to be digitally altered or completely falsified. 

The NYT needs to answer for this. This is completely irresponsible and incitement to violence at a time when Jews are being actively attacked globally fueled by disinformation like this. 

Here is the NYT article: [link deleted]

There are the x-rays that purport to show children who were treated after being ‘shot by the IDF’ with what they claim is 5.56 caliber bullets … yet there are no skull fractures, no exit wounds, and no change in the bullet itself from a rifle? Come on… as people far more knowledgable than me would say, there’s no way these x-rays show what the ‘experts in Gaza’ claim they show — which of course makes their entire testimony highly suspect.

That is the first part of a thread where she gathers other posts poking holes in the Times’ story, including Cheryl’s comments and several others. So, just to be clear the following are shared by Ms. Schrader, just so no one can accuse us of pulling a ‘Kamala Harris:’

As we were finishing this up, we consulted with a veteran friend of ours and he concurred that there was no way a 5.56 bullet would stop inside a person's skull or neck at close range. Meanwhile, this poster responded to 'Cheryl:'

The cut off text reads:

Firstly, skull xrays are never done for head trauma in this age of MRI and CT. None of these people are intubated and with bullets in their brains they all would be. 

The 1st image appears to have fully mature dentition, so unlikely a child.

The 2nd image is of an infant, with an open anterior fontanel, and an object shown - which could not possibly have got there. The periosteum is fully intact. I suggest this is an artefact and not a genuine image. 

Posting such inflammatory statements has consequences, doctors have a duty not to propagate lies. Let them produce the provenance of these xrays.

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Bluntly, all of these people seem credible enough in their analysis but we don’t know these people, we don’t know their credentials, and so what you see is one group of people saying ‘N’ and the other saying ‘not N’ and raising significant questions, but we don’t actually know who is right on every point.

Still, as a lay person, we lean toward these photos being fake. The bullets look too perfect. The video from @TizkoretZe and the testimony of this author’s veteran friend convinces us they wouldn’t have stopped inside these children’s bodies. They even seem to have never even been fired. And the Elder of Ziyon’s point about the bullets always being exactly sideways in the x-ray is salient, too. And the longer analysis we have cited, especially Cheryl’s, rings true to us as well. Take that for what it is worth.

But we also come back to the more basic problem. Let’s say someone could prove that these were real gunshots with 5.56 rounds that were the type definitely used by the IDF.

First, how could you prove that they weren’t being used by anyone else? How do you prove that a member of Israel's military actually fired those bullets? 

Second, even if you could absolutely prove that IDF soldiers shot these children, sadly you can’t assume that there is no justification for it. The ugly truth is Hamass and other terror groups regularly use children (and other people incapable of giving meaningful consent) as combatants. If a child is running at you while wearing a suicide vest, what exactly are you supposed to do? You have no choice but to shoot the child.

Which is not to say that, in that scenario, this death isn’t a tragedy. It is. But the blame for that tragedy wouldn’t lie with the shooter. Since the child is too young to meaningfully consent, the fault lies on the adults who put the child up to it—not just the Hamass terrorists, but the society that tells these children constantly that they should throw their lives away for no other reason than to kill jews. To quote Golda Meir:

We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.

But the world perversely rewards the Palestinians for killing their own children, either directly, by sending them to die in battle or just making sure that terrorists and their infrastructure are surrounded by children. The world gives the Palestinians a propaganda victory for every child that dies. And as long as you reward something, you will get more of it.

In any case, we turn this over to you, the reader. Are these photographs what they are claimed to be by the New York Times and others? Or are they falsified in some way? We are genuinely curious how that discussion would go. We are sure you will make up your own mind, but this author would like to hear why you believe one view or another is correct.

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Tags: FAKE NEWS ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT NEW YORK TIMES

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