Pro-Gaza MP sparks outrage by blaming Israel for Bibas family deaths in Gaza
JLC condemns Iqbal Mohamed MP over social media post
An independent MP elected on a pro-Gaza platform has shared a social media post alleging that Israel was responsible for the deaths of the Bibas family, who were taken hostage in Gaza.
The post shared by Iqbal Mohamed, MP for Dewsbury and Batley, on X featured images of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, and spread the conspiracy theory that “Israeli bombs” caused their deaths.
The MP added: “Lies. Damn lies. And Israel! There is no limit to Israeli lies, inhumanity, depravity and atrocities.”
Shiri Bibas and her young sons, Ariel and Kfir, became symbolic of the brutality of the October 7 attacks, when they were kidnapped during the assault by Palestinian terrorist groups, led by Hamas, on southern Israel.
At the time of her abduction, Shiri was 32, Ariel was four, and Kfir, just nine months old, was the youngest hostage taken.
The Bibas brothers were known for their distinctive bright red hair.
The Jewish Leadership Council responded to the MP’s post, stating: “For Iqbal Mohamed to share false claims that Israel killed the Bibas brothers marks a new low in an already appalling pattern of hostility towards the Jewish state. Spreading such disinformation fuels division and makes Israelis and Jews in the UK targets for violence.”
The post shared by the MP had read: “After 2 years of insisting that Hamas held the Bibas children (they should never have been taken) and then telling you that one day they were randomly strangled to death for no apparent reason..
“Nitzan Alon, head of Israel’s Hostages and Missing Persons team, tells Israeli media that: 1) They were not taken nor held by Hamas. 2) They were not killed by Hamas, but were, in fact, killed by Israeli bombs”.
Alon, a retired IDF major general who served as head of the IDF’s Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters, had given an interview to a television channel but he did not suggest the Bibas family were killed by Israel.
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