‘Born an Orphan’: Revisiting an Oct. 7 Lie After a New Gaza Tragedy

Mehdi’s Monday Memo on a newborn baby in Rafah, plus an update on Zeteo’s launch

(A Palestinian baby girl, saved from the womb of her mother Sabreen Al-Sheikh who was killed in an Israeli strike, lies in an incubator on April 21, 2024. REUTERS / Mohammed Salem)

Let’s be clear: The Hamas-led atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023, were very real and very shocking. 

But do you remember how the Israeli government and its proxies pushed out a bunch of fake atrocity stories, alongside all the real ones? Hoaxes that were debunked by a variety of Israeli and Western media outlets – including Zeteo. 

Remember the beheaded babies? False. The babies baked in ovens? False. The babies hung on clotheslines? False.

How about the official from the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish volunteer organization, Zaka, who claimed to have found the body of a pregnant Israeli woman, at a kibbutz on Oct. 7, who had been “shot in the back,” had her stomach cut open and “butchered,” and her unborn baby “that was connected to the cord stabbed”?

Shocking, right? It was a lie. A falsehood. A complete fabrication from a thoroughly dishonest and discredited organization. 

But I couldn’t help but think of that particular fake story from the Zaka official when I read this very real story from Reuters over the weekend:

“A baby girl was delivered from the womb of a Palestinian killed along with her husband and daughter by an Israeli attack in the Gaza city of Rafah, where 19 people died overnight in intensified strikes, Palestinian health officials said…Her mother, Sabreen Al-Sakani, had been 30 weeks pregnant. The baby was placed in an incubator in a Rafah hospital alongside another infant, with the words ‘The baby of the martyr Sabreen Al-Sakani’ written on tape across her chest…Sakani's young daughter Malak, who was killed in the strike, had wanted to name her new sister Rouh, meaning spirit in Arabic, said her uncle Rami Al-Sheikh…The baby would stay in hospital for three to four weeks, said Salama, the doctor. ‘After that we will see about her leaving, and where this child will go, to the family, to the aunt or uncle or grandparents. Here is the biggest tragedy. Even if this child survives, she was born an orphan,’ he said.”

What We Have Been Up To At Zeteo

It’s been a super-busy week since we formally launched Zeteo last Monday, while crossing 165,000 subscriptions in total, 20,000 of them paid (thank you!).

We released the first episode of my new show ‘Mehdi Unfiltered,’ featuring exclusive interviews with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former Trump White House communications director turned Trump critic Anthony Scaramucci. 

We revealed the trailer for our new podcast, ‘We’re Not Kidding,’ featuring our first guest co-host and Zeteo contributor Bassem Youssef. 

We launched a new segment, ‘Two Outspoken,’ with author, columnist, and Zeteo contributor Owen Jones.

We published op-eds from Zeteo contributors John Harwood (on Biden vs Trump) and Fatima Bhutto (on Western feminism’s failure on Gaza), and we rolled out a list of our high-profile contributors (Greta! Naomi! Kamau!).

The Launch Event!

Last Monday, we also officially launched Zeteo with a fun public event for paid subscribers in the ballroom of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., featuring legendary tech journalist Kara Swisher and Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The event was followed by a reception for politicians and the press in the museum’s awesome Bond In Motion movie exhibition. 

You can watch the public event here:

And here are some pictures, from photographer Brendan Kownacki, from both events:

(Before, at the SPY Museum ballroom in Washington D.C.)

(After, at the SPY Museum ballroom)

(With interviewer and journalist Kara Swisher)

(With special guest AOC)

(With Vanity Fair’s Brian Stelter and the Wall Street Journal’s Sabrina Siddiqui)

(With seven pro-Gaza ceasefire members of Congress, from left to right: Joaquin Castro, Maxwell Frost, Jamaal Bowman, Rashida Tlaib, Delia Ramirez, Mark Pocan, and Ro Khanna)

(With my good friend and former MSNBC colleague Ayman Mohyeldin)

(The fabulous Bond in Motion exhibition at the SPY Museum)

As you can see, it was a great night! And I am so grateful to you all for your support – and for making Zeteo such a media success story in such a short space of time.