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Who is Nicole Zedeck? Journalist at centre of '40 babies beheaded' story refuses to back down

Nicole Zedeck of i24NEWS is responding to those who have denied the massacres committed by Hamas

Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised

KFAR AZAR, ISRAEL: i24NEWS reporter Nicole Zedeck who first reported on Hamas slaughtering Israeli infants, spoke from Israel to refute claims that her reporting was incorrect and to provide the most recent information from the country.

The reporter has become the center of the storm created by the "40 babies beheaded" report that went viral on social media on Wednesday (October 11).

The international war correspondent who broke the story about the Palestinian militant group beheading 40 Israeli babies, however, stood by her reporting and recounted some of the crimes her "own eyes" witnessed.

Zedeck lambasted those who questioned her account of the alleged October 10 massacre of 40 infants and young children at a kibbutz close to the Gaza border, including several who had been decapitated.

What did Nicole Zedeck say in her defense?

Zedek responded to questions and open skepticism on 'The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show' on Wednesday, October 11, after her stories about slaughtered infants went viral and were widely debated across the world.

She said, "I witnessed some of those scenes with my own eyes as we were walking through this community that may be a quarter of a mile from the Gaza border. The atrocities that were still left behind, children, cribs, baby cribs overturned on their side, splattered with blood. Horrible, horrible images."

Zedek said she initially felt happy that her news had traveled so quickly "because people need to see those images and need to hear exactly what’s happening here on the ground in Israel."

Zedek claimed she also spoke with a deputy commander who arrived in the area early on October 7, when there were still "active terrorists hiding in houses" that they immediately attempted to "eliminate."

She stated that "this is just a glimpse into what is happening here," adding that the IDF is still coming across additional targeted towns in southern Israel.

Who did Nicole Zedek speak to regarding the 'beheaded babies'?

She was also filmed speaking to the deputy commander of the IDF's unit 71, David Ben Zion, who is heard describing the Hamas fighters as "aggressive" and "very bad". He says: "They cut off heads… of children, of women."

Zion has now been dubbed a highly disputed source.

In another live broadcast, as seen online, Zedek says "40 babies at least were taken out on gurneys."

This statement from her seems to be from where the phrase of "40 beheaded babies" started from about the alleged incident that is yet to be confirmed by other news outlets. 

Travis later played a clip from a commentator who questioned Zedek's reporting's accuracy, calling her claim that infants had been beheaded "completely false" and charging her with fabricating the most gory details based on a "walk-and-talk" interview with an Israeli commander.

However, Zedek, in her defense noted that soldiers notified her of the infant death counts and the exact death toll is yet to be declared.

She acknowledged the Israeli forces for having to transfer the dead children into ambulances and expressed the horror of the murders, per the New York Post.

Nicole Zedek slams those asking 'where are the babies?'

She retaliated by saying, "You know, it’s sickening, really, that people are asking, ‘Where are the babies? Why aren’t you showing the babies?’"

"Is that something that anyone would want to see the first thing with their own eyes? Because after the graphic images that I saw of just children’s beds covered in blood I don’t think I would be able to stomach those atrocities as well."

Zedek further backed her reporting and said, "I could never imagine something like that happening so I could never speak those words if no one had spoken them to me because I didn’t know that was a possibility for someone to witness with their own eyes."

Zedek claimed that people are picking up on minutiae such as the hastily calculated figure 40 and the word "babies," which might imply various things to various people.

She said besides her own eyes, there are multiple “soldiers confirming what they’ve seen of the mutilation of these children. And I think when people are denying what’s actually happening here, it is truly, truly sad and show that people just are not willing to see exactly what’s happening.”

No 'proof' to show 40 babies were beheaded

Tal Heinrich, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had informed CNN that infants and toddlers were discovered in southern Israel with their "heads decapitated."

This was after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the outlet on October 10 that Hamas militants carried out a “massacre” in Kfar Aza, in which women, children, toddlers and elderly people were "brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action.”

However, Hamas called these reports “false” and on its Telegram channel said, "Hamas has strongly dismissed the false claims promoted by some Western media outlets, such as Palestinian freedom fighters killing children and targeting civilians" as reported by CNN.

CNN also later tweeted on X : "Israel cannot confirm the specific claim that babies were beheaded in Hamas' attack, an official says, contradicting previous public statement." 

Israeli Defence Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus said a coroner who visited the aftermath of the massacre at a Kibbutz close to the Gaza Strip had seen the children's bodies and confirmed how they died.

"I admit it took us some time to really understand and to verify that report, and it was hard to believe that even Hamas could perform such a barbaric act," he told the BBC, as per a Daily Mail report.

Maj. Doron Spielman, the IDF spokesperson, later informed NBC News that he was unable to establish how many infants had been beheaded.

Nevertheless, he continued, "What I can confirm is there were enormous witness testimonies along with evidence found in the field that there were children that were grotesquely murdered and their body parts were removed."

Another journalist, Oren Ziv, who works for independent news outlet 972 mag, however, claims to have spoken to "hundreds of soldiers on site" who refute these claims. 

In a post on X, he said: "During the tour we didn't see any evidence of this, and the army spokesperson or commanders also didn't mention any such incidents."

However, these are merely statements that still lack verification.