Suicide letter by 'witness of Hamas sexual violence' is fabricated, Israeli media admits

A suicide note, initially believed to be from a young survivor of Hamas's 7 October attack at the Nova music festival, has been confirmed as a fabrication, Israeli media reported on Thursday, following a number of other false claims made by Israel regarding the events of that day.

Last week, a social media post claimed that a young man, who had allegedly survived the Hamas-led assault on the southern Israel music festival, had "committed suicide" and that his family had decided to share the man's suicide letter.

The fabricated letter described an alleged traumatic experience at the festival, including fake allegations that the man's girlfriend was brutally attacked and felt guilt at being "unable" to help her.

Israel's Channel 13 reported that efforts to contact the author's family had led to an investigation which concluded the story was fabricated.

"A story that ran in recent days about a Nova survivor who saw horrors and committed suicide did not leave a single dry eye," Adam Shafir, the producer of Israeli Channel 13’s current affairs program Hatzinor ("The Pipeline"), posted on X on.

"After trying to reach the family, to tell their story, the search turned into an investigation. We will reveal tonight on 'The Pipeline' that it is a complete fake."

The letter was posted anonymously in a Nova Survivors Facebook group, according to Israeli media reports, and was later widely disseminated after it was translated into English by Israeli writer Hen Mazzig.

Mazzig, who works at the Tel Aviv Institute, shared the translation of the fabricated suicide note on X with highly sensationalised remarks.

"After miraculously surviving the October 7 massacre, the young Israeli man decided to end his life after witnessing too many horrors, including the rape of a girl," Mazzig posted.

"The overwhelming weight of everything he saw, heard and experienced, along with his inability to save the girl being assaulted nearby, made him feel incapable of continuing his life."

The fabricated letter was widely shared on X, and reposted by Germany's envoy to Israel who apologised on Thursday for disseminating fake news.

"I regret having believed – like so many others – that that suicide letter was real. It turns out it was a fake," Ambassador Steffen Seibert posted on X.

Since 7 October, several fabricated claims have emerged from Israel, including reports about beheaded and burned babies, a fetus being torn from their mother's womb, and some of the allegations of mass rape on that day.

Several of these allegations were quickly debunked by official videos released by the Israeli military and verified accounts by residents of Kibbutz Be'eri, which was attacked on 7 October.

A recent United Nations report found it was unable to verify various allegations of sexual violence on 7 October, including those related to Kibbutz Be'eri.

"At least two allegations of sexual violence widely repeated in the media were unfounded due to either new superseding information or inconsistency in the facts gathered," the UN report said.

Most of the fabricated allegations against the Palestinian group had emerged after widespread public anger over Israel's brutal and indiscriminate onslaught of the Gaza Strip, where at least 40,600 people - mostly women and children - were killed in what top rights experts described as a genocide against Palestinian people.