‘Squad’ member slammed for pushing misinformation: Instinct was to ‘try to blame the Israelis’

‘Squad’ member Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., drew criticism for retweeting a photo of dead children with the caption "CHILD GENOCIDE IN PALESTINE." 

The photo showed seven dead children wrapped in white and claimed they were part of the "614 Palestinian children murdered by the Israeli [IDF] forces."

A community note from X, formerly known as Twitter, stated that the picture was from a 2013 sarin gas attack in Ghouta, Syria, and not from the Israel-Hamas war. 

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Fellow ‘Squad’ member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., warned about the "incredibly high" amount of misinformation on social media about the ongoing war and urged her followers to "pause" and "check" for verification.  

"If you see a claim, photo, or video that triggers a strong emotional reaction, take a moment to pause and check for veracity/confirmation from multiple sources," she wrote on X. 

Omar has since un-retweeted the photo after criticism. 

UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 2: Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is seen after the House voted to remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, February 2, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Fox News contributor Guy Benson called out Omar for trying to blame the children’s deaths on Israel. 

"She was claiming through that retweet that Israel had killed these children. And of course, the photo was from a decade ago in a different country. It was a lie. But her impulse, her instinct was to try to blame the Israelis for the death of children," he said on "The Big Weekend Show."

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"Here's the sad part. Palestinian children have been killed already. More Palestinian children will be killed in the days to come. Cutting through the fog of war, it is important when we get those reports, verified or otherwise when that happens, is that Israel goes out of its way to avoid that, whereas Hamas goes out of its way to kill innocent people," Benson continued. 

Israeli forces establish heavily armed control points along the border as Israel tightens measures by the army, police and other security forces after Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in Sderot, Israel over the weekend.  (Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Co-host Will Cain argued every nation that has been at war engages in propaganda. "The truth dies in war," he said. 

"The truth dies in war," he said. "I consider it the job of our elected leaders to share the truth with their people. So I cannot abide in Ilhan Omar or anyone else, for that matter, participating in the propaganda. And it puts the onus on us. It's our job to sort out the propaganda and do our best to tell the truth."

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Ashley Carnahan is a production assistant at Fox News Digital.