Grandson of Israeli hostages says retired journalist grandfather would want spotlight on missing children
Daniel Lifshitz spoke to Fox News Digital about his grandparents who were taken by Hamas terrorists during the deadly invasion of Israel.
Boston’s NPR station, WBUR, pulled a program from national distribution on Monday after a professor "expressed doubt that women and children had been killed by Hamas" during the terror group’s surprise attack on Israel.
"Today's episode of ‘On Point’ did not meet our editorial standards. It is paramount to acknowledge when our work falls short of our standards," the NPR station wrote in a statement.
The program featured Khaled Hroub, a professor at Northwestern University in Qatar and a research associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge.
WBUR pulled a program after Northwestern University in Qatar professor Khaled Hroub "expressed doubt that women and children had been killed by Hamas." (Reuters/The Print/Screenshot)
"Professor Hroub has written multiple books about Hamas and was on the program to provide a factual history of the Islamist group. The program was live and as it progressed, Professor Hroub expressed doubt that women and children had been killed by Hamas in its October 7 attack on Israel," WBUR said.
"’On Point’ Host Meghna Chakrabarti countered with statements of fact to correct the record. But that does not negate the impact of hearing Professor Hroub's statements," WBUR continued. "’On Point’ strives to contribute thoughtfully to the public discourse, and in an environment where misinformation is both rampant and dangerous, we felt compelled to pull this hour of our programming from national distribution after its initial broadcast."
Hroub said at one point he had not seen "credible" reporting that Hamas terrorists had killed civilians in their beds.
"I haven’t seen any kind of credible media reporting, at least about the latest incident on the 7th of October, of killing civilians in this manner," he said after the WBUR host mentioned Israelis being killed in their beds.
"We have read of course, you know, the beheading of 40 babies and raping women and all of that, and of course, when you hear these things, I myself, I was shocked and then it turned out to be kind of fabricated and all of that," Hroub said before claiming the Israeli media feeds "misinformation" to the public and that Hamas’ leader told terrorists not to kill women and children.
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Israeli girl captured by Hamas terrorists and taken into Gaza strip. Not pictured, the girls pants were soaked in blood by the backside. (Fox News Digital )
Northwestern distanced itself from the comments and strongly condemned any "attempt to minimize or misrepresent" the terror attacks.
"While Northwestern firmly supports academic freedom and freedom of expression, we condemn any attempt to minimize or misrepresent the horrific killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas on Oct. 7. Khaled AL-Hroub's opinions are his own. Individual faculty members do not represent the views or beliefs of the University," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Hroub defended his comments when reached by Fox News Digital.
"I said that the source of all the stories about Hamas beheading 40 babies and raping women were mostly Israeli. These stories proved to be all lies, baseless and fabricated. By the same token, all the figures about the dead on the Israeli side come from Israeli sources, including the breakdown of numbers between soldiers and civilians. There is no third and/or neutral party to verify these news and figures, and names of the killed. I’m not defending Hamas here, I’m asking for verified information," Hroub wrote in an email.
Hamas killed at least 1,300 in a surprise terror attack that hit men, women, children and older civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released photos last week that it said confirmed Hamas terrorists "murdered and burned" babies in Kfar Aza, in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip.
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Hamas killed at least 1,400 in a surprise terror attack that hit men, women, children and older civilians on October 7. (Getty)
Other women and children were kidnapped and are being held hostage inside Gaza. Israel has since declared war on the terror group.
NPR did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
Hroub made similar comments and also insisted the terror group doesn’t use human shields during an interview with ThePrint that was published on Tuesday.
"The media created the discourse and the narrative… people still buying the stories of babies, and women, raping and all of that. Now, based on this, my question to everyone," he said on ThePrint. "What are the evidence?"
Hroub wrote the 2010 book "Hamas: A Beginner's Guide" in addition to several other books about the organization.
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Fox News’ Lawrence Richard, Greg Norman and Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
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