Jordan’s Queen Rania, in an interview aired Wednesday, claimed there is no verifiable evidence that Hamas terrorists beheaded children during their October 7 massacre in southern Israel, despite various materials available on the atrocities.
Rania told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that the atrocities committed by Hamas and widely reported in media outlets could not be independently verified, despite videos, some from the terrorists’ own bodycams, testimony from survivors, forensic experts, and ZAKA rescue service personnel, that have all served as evidence of the brutal acts of violence on October 7.
“When the president of the United States is told that he has evidence he has seen evidence of children beheaded, only to retract it because the IDF said that there’s no proof of that, that is confirmation bias,” she said, rehashing the claim voiced in anti-Israel circles since October 7 that there has been no evidence of such crimes.
“Even at your network, Christiane, the CNN website, at the beginning of the conflict reported a headline about Israeli children found butchered in an Israeli kibbutz. And when you read through the story, that hasn’t been independently verified,” added Rania, who was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents.
Amanpour pushed back, saying there has been plenty of evidence proving the murderous brutality directed at children and people of all ages during the Hamas assault in southern Israel.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories
In response to the remarks, families of Israelis who are being held hostage in the Gaza Strip sent her a link to a website that includes videos of abuse, beheadings, and the burnings of bodies by the terrorists on October 7, collected by police and Military Intelligence.
Queen Rania of Jordan hasn't condemned the Hamas attack on Israel and the murder of Israeli civilians, but now she goes even further to deny such slaughter of Israeli children ever happened https://t.co/HEiiDFIj0G
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 25, 2023
Meanwhile, the IDF on Wednesday publicized a note recovered from the body of a dead terrorist who took part in the massacre, showing that beheadings were among the goals of the attack.
“You must sharpen the blades of your swords and be pure in your intentions before Allah. Know that the enemy is a disease that has no cure, except beheading and removing the hearts and livers. Attack them!” the note read.
Rania in her interview also accused Western leaders of a “glaring double standard” for not condemning Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians in its ongoing bombardment of Gaza, which it says is aimed at destroying terror infrastructure and toppling the Hamas regime.
“The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, are just shocked and disappointed by the world’s reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world,” she said.
“When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack,” Rania added. “But what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world.”
“Are we being told that it is wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s okay to shell them to death?” she asked, referring to Israel’s offensive.
“Know that this enemy of yours is a disease that has no cure, other than beheading and extracting the hearts and livers!"
This note was found on a Hamas terrorist from the October 7 massacre. It was handed to him by Hamas commanders in Gaza as encouragement to behead their… pic.twitter.com/B2Kx2znuGj
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 25, 2023
War erupted on October 7 when Hamas terrorists broke through the border with Gaza and rampaged through southern communities, slaughtering more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping more than 220 others, under the cover of a deluge of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities.
The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — including babies, children, and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 260 were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality, torture and sexual violence by the terrorists.
Israel has responded with an air offensive on the coastal enclave it says is aimed at destroying Hamas’s infrastructure and has vowed to eliminate the entire terror group, which rules the Strip. It says it is targeting all areas where Hamas operates while trying to minimize civilian casualties.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry says the strikes have killed 6,546 people, mostly civilians and many of them children. The figures issued by the terror group cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include its own terrorists and gunmen, killed in Israel and in Gaza, and the victims of a blast at a Gaza City hospital on October 17 caused by an Islamic Jihad missile misfire that Hamas has blamed on Israel. Israel says it killed 1,500 Hamas terrorists inside Israel on and after October 7.
Many Western governments have repeatedly and publicly voiced their support for Israel while urging it to respect international law as it presses its bombardment and readies a ground offensive it says is aimed at destroying Hamas and retrieving the hostages.
File: Demonstrators chant slogans near the Israeli Embassy in Amman on October 20, 2023. (Khalil Mazraawi/AFP)
Thousands have protested across the Arab world, including in the Jordanian capital Amman, expressing support for the people of Gaza.
UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday said, “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” a statement that drew a fierce response from Israel’s top diplomat at the UN, Gilad Erdan, who called for Guterres to resign. Jerusalem also said it was halting visas for UN officials in response to the remarks.
Israel and its allies have so far rebuffed calls for a blanket ceasefire, which the White House says would only benefit Hamas.
The United States last week vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for a “humanitarian pause” in the war, saying the text did not recognize Israel’s right to defend itself.
Last week, Jordan was one of several nations, including Russia, that requested a meeting of the UN General Assembly due to the Security Council deadlock.
