Thomas Wictor

Looking over some photos of two dead Palestinian twins led me on a search through Websites. The ones in English are fraudulent, while those in Arabic are honest. The al-Skafi family were not killed in an Israeli massacre. It’s another blood libel.

We begin with Beyond the Number and its entry for Sa’ad Akram al-Skafi, killed in Shijaiyah on July 20, 2014.

Sa’ad Akram Al-Skafi, 18, along with 8 other family members were killed in the Shujaiyya massacre on July 20, 2014. Sa’ad just recently got his final high school grades, with an excellent average of 91%. The other 8 members are:

Anas Akram al-Skafi, 18 years old (twin of Sa’ad).
Abdelrahman Akram Mohammed al-Skafi, 22 years old.
Isam Atieh Said al-Skafi, 26 years old.
Ali Mohammed Hassan al-Skafi, 27 years old.
Mohammed Hassan Mohammad al-Skafi, 53 years old.
Moussaeb al-Khayr Salah al-Din Said al-Skafi, 27 years old.
Mojahed Marwan Said al-Skafi, 20 years old.
Akram Mohammed Ali al-Skafi, 63 years old.

The Battle of Shijaiyah began at 1:00 a.m. on July 20, 2014, when terrorists of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad ambushed Israeli infantry that had entered the neighborhood at midnight. Shijaiyah was the “center of gravity” of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This suburb was a complex of bunkers, tunnels, combat posts, rocket-launching sites, weapons depots, and factories protected by 100,000 human shields.

Another English-language Website is Humanize Palestine, which says this about the al-Skafi family.

In Memory: 9 Members of the al-Skafi Family

Anas and Sa’ad Akram al-Skafi were 18 year old twin brothers. The brothers did not get a chance to celebrate their excellent Tawjihi scores. Anas got 88% & Sa’ad got 91%.

Abdel Rahman Akram Mohammed al-Skafi was 22 years old. Above, Abdel Rahman is seen celebrating his graduation.

Isam Atieh Said al-Skafi was 26 years old.

Ali Mohammed Hassan al-Skafi, was 27 years old.

Mohammed Hassan Mohammad al-Skafi was 53 years old.

Moussaeb al-Khayr Salah al-Din Said al-Skafi was 27 years old.

Mojahed Marwan Said al-Skafi was 20 years old.

Akram Mohammed Ali al-Skafi was 63 years old.

The al-Skafi family members were killed in the Shujaiyya massacre on July 20, 2014.

Here’s Anas Skafi, twin of Sa’ad.

What I noticed was that all nine of the dead are men. That set off my alarm bells. And guess what? I was right to be suspicious.

Here’s Sa’ad Skafi in a different set of clothing.

And here’s his twin brother Anas.

They were members of the al-Quds Brigades, the terrorist wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

What about the other Skafi men?

This is Abdel Skafi in life and in death.

The writing says, “Neighbor Martyr Abdel Rahman Skafi’s body was not picked up from under the house from 6 days ago until now because of the shelling on Shijaiyah.”

Actually, the Israelis shelled Shijaiyah only on July 20, 2014. All other shelling was carried out by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who used heavy-caliber mortars.

Humanize Palestine has a photo of Abdel Skafi graduating from college.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has a photo of him in his al-Quds Brigades uniform.

Here’s Ali al-Skafi, another member of the al-Quds Brigades.

Here’s Mojahed al-Skafi in his al-Quds Brigades martyrdom video.

Isam al-Skafi worked for the Ministry of Education, which in Gaza is run by Hamas.

The page from which that photo was taken shows an awful lot of dead military-age males, several with jihadist beards.

Since I don’t speak or read Arabic, I can’t tell you what Moussaeb al-Skafi did, but here’s a video commemorating him.

The description calls him “martyred leader Moussaeb al-Skafi” or “martyred commander Moussaeb al-Skafi,” depending on the translation. Look at this screen grab.

I think I’ll go with “commander.”

Here are all the al-Skafis killed by the Israelis.

The one in the lower row, second from the left, is Ahmed al-Skafi.

That’s the Hamas flag behind him.

And the one in the lower row, second from the right, is Mohammed al-Skafi, a “jihadist.”

This is a terrorist family. Since no al-Skafi women or children were killed on July 20, 2014, I’m guessing that if the IDF bombed the house with an F-16—as claimed by the al-Quds Brigades Website—it was because the menfolk were firing on the Israeli infantry who’d arrived in Shijaiyah to demolish the terrorist strongholds.

Colonel Lerner said Hamas had “fortified” the whole neighborhood not far from the border with Israel, building a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the houses, which he called “Lower Gaza.” The fighting started about 1 a.m. and lasted about seven hours. Colonel Lerner said the Hamas fighters were armed with antitank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons…

The senior military official, who briefed reporters in Tel Aviv and spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with army rules, said the forces faced hundreds of Hamas fighters.

“It was a real battle there,” he said. “They were hiding in the apartments, shooting at the Israeli soldiers from the apartments, from the houses, from the windows.”

The al-Quds Brigades Website quotes a brother of the two dead eighteen-year-old terrorists.

We called upon God to save us from this barbaric war.

Well, God obviously didn’t pick up the phone, did He? In fact it looks like He pretty much directed Israeli fire right into the faces of the al-Skafi family. The Israeli Air Force dropped 100 GBU-31 or MK-84 2000-lb (945-kg) bombs. If you look at the destruction, it’s clear that not very many of these were explosive munitions. There isn’t enough fragmentation damage, there aren’t enough craters, and the buildings look battered apart.

The ceilings and roofs are intact, so I’m betting that the Israelis used mostly inert bombs full of cement.

When the terrorist al-Skafi family ambushed the Golani Brigade, the Israelis fought back. You also have to keep in mind that Palestinian terrorists don’t give a hoot about who they kill, so it’s entirely possible that Hamas shot some 120mm mortar rounds at the al-Skafis, just because. Ever seen a shark or piranha feeding frenzy? In the middle of it, they start attacking each other.

Regardless of who killed the al-Skafis, it wasn’t a massacre. The al-Skafis were combatants who took on a superior force, and they paid for it. That’s what happens when you cover your eyes with a stupid mask before going into battle.

The photo was taken in Shijaiyah on July 20, 2014, and all that damage on the wall behind the stumbling terrorist is the result of weapons wielded by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the al-Quds Brigades. You can tell because none of those expended rounds served a purpose.