The heavy rains in Israel were exacerbated this week by a decision by the Hamas government in Gaza to open the dams on the borders of the Gaza Strip. By opening these dams, Israeli towns and roads were submerged in water disrupting traffic and putting many Israeli lives at risk.
A shop owner in Sderot complained.
“I don’t understand why this happened to us. The last time, the municipality told us that [there was flooding] because there was more rain than normal, and therefore the drainage system couldn’t handle it. But what happened this time? There was a normal amount of rain, and here we are, again with flooding, even worse than the last time.”
Clearly this shop owner was unaware of the nefarious actions taken by Hamas and its intentions to flood Israel. While Hamas has denied these actions, citing the fact that there is similar flooding in Gaza and that no dams exist for it to open even if it wanted to, Israel stuck to its assertion of Hamas culpability.
The Israeli government also reported that the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has opened barrages leading to flooding in central and southern Israel. These claims were also denied.
The above is obviously nonsense. Israel is flooding today due to heavy rains and not because of any dams Hamas opened. Hearing the story reported this way sounds completely ridiculous and immediately outs anyone parroting it a propagandist not a journalist.
However, year after year, this same narrative is churned out by the Palestinian media and picked up by news affiliates all over the world.
These news sources, hungry for a story that easily paints Israel as evil and Palestinians as victims jump on this without bothering to do the most basic research that would tell them:
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There are no dams around Gaza to be opened as admitted by Al Jazeera in an uncharacteristically forceful retraction.
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Israel suffers from the same exact flooding at the same exact time (see above videos).
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In anticipation of the natural flooding, Israel facilitates the transfer of heavy water pumps from the Palestinian Authority to Gaza.
The #FloodLibel hasn’t yet started to make major rounds this year, but when it does (and it will), be ready to debunk it with this easy to use chart:
