Home Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har, hostages rescued from Gaza, were released on February 12, not February 2

Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har, hostages rescued from Gaza, were released on February 12, not February 2

By: Iryna Hnatiuk
February 20 2024

Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har, hostages rescued from Gaza, were released on February 12, not February 2

Fact-Check

The Verdict False

The hostages were released on February 12. The claim originated from a typo in a report which was corrected by the authors soon after.

Claim ID 35a0cbc2

Context

A claim circulating on social media platforms (archived here) suggests hostages, reported to have been released by Israel on February 12, were actually released on February 2. The publication implies that the rescue "was a pure planned propaganda."

Two Israeli-Argentinian men, 60-year-old Fernando Simon Marman and 70-year-old Louis Har, were taken captive by Hamas on October 7 and spent 128 days in captivity. They reunited with their families at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel.

In reality, the claim originated from a typo in a report. The mistake was fixed by the authors soon after.

In fact

The confusion originated from a typographical error in the report by Israeli media Haaretz. The report mistakenly listed the release date as February 2 instead of the correct date, February 12.

The publication, claiming that the rescue was "a pure planned propaganda," included a screenshot from Haaretz before the typo was corrected. Later, Haaretz fixed the mistake and published a debunking on their page on X (former Twitter).

Haaretz fixed the mistake and published a debunking. Source: X (former Twitter), screenshot.

Journalist at BBC Verify, Shayan Sardarizadeh, debunked this claim and published on his page on X that Haaretz has not reported that the Israeli hostages Louis Har and Fernando Marman were rescued on 2 February, and the IDF has released footage of their rescue.

The claim was debunked by Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist at BBC Verify. Source: X (former Twitter), screenshot

The verdict

The claim is false. The allegation that the hostages were released on February 2, thereby rendering the rescue operation part of a propaganda campaign, is based on a typographical error and misunderstanding. Haaretz fixed the mistake and published the respective information on their social media.

We have contacted Haaretz for a comment and will update this publication as soon as we get one.