CNN segment on Israel-Hamas war misleadingly edited

"An Israeli army officer confesses on a live broadcast on CNN: 'The war in Gaza is not only with Hamas, but with all civilians there,'" says an October 16, 2023 post sharing a snippet of the interview on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Screenshot of an X post taken October 17, 2023

Similar claims amassed thousands of shares on X and Facebook -- including in French, Portuguese and Spanish.

Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people and taking some 199 hostages in the worst assault in the country's history. Shell-shocked Israel has responded with withering air strikes against targets in Gaza, leveling entire neighborhoods and killing about 3,000 people -- mostly ordinary Palestinians.

Aid agencies have called for Israel to allow vital humanitarian supplies into Gaza, where millions of people have been cut off from water, food and fuel. Israel, meanwhile, has requested some 1.1 million Gazans -- nearly half the population -- to move south in preparation for a ground offensive against Hamas.

The CNN clip is from a genuine October 10 interview but has been edited to remove important context.

Here is the full exchange from "CNN Primetime," which anchor Abby Phillip posted on X (archived here):

Phillip: "My understanding is that you are actively leading a number of soldiers in your community. Tell us how you and your fellow soldiers are preparing for what your country is heading into right now, which could very well be a prolonged war with Hamas."

Israeli soldier Betzalel Taljah: "I tried to correct you to the answer. The war was not just with Hamas. The war was with all the civilians that cannot see us as human beings, that want to kill us. Because what I saw in that place near Gaza, civilians from Gaza came on bicycles -- on bicycles -- to the kibbutz just to kill and destroy. 

"It's not just, you know, like people that are warriors of Hamas. I cannot even call them warriors. They are not warriors. Somebody that fights with kids and women is not a warrior. They are not warriors. They are nothing. They are monsters. So monsters from Hamas, civilians from Hamas came and killed people from Israel just because they are people. I think it's a war between good and evil -- this is what we're preparing."

AFP contacted CNN for comment, but a response was not forthcoming.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war here.