Cellphones, Gaza and the IDF

By Cory Franklin

August 29th, 2025

Among international agencies, news outlets and influential commentators, it has become an article of faith that Israel Defense Forces are deliberately shooting innocent civilians who are waiting in food lines in Gaza – an extreme violation of international law.

Despite IDF denials of firing on innocents, the UN Human Rights Office, Reuters, The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, National Public Radio (NPR), The New York Times and CNN, among others, are all reporting that the IDF has intentionally killed hundreds, possibly more than a thousand Gazan civilians queued up for food. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, along with influential commentators Piers Morgan and Andrew Sullivan, all make similar claims.

Only one problem: there is no verified video footage of the IDF actually shooting at or killing Gaza civilians in the food lines. Even though there are thousands of potential victims lining up for food, none of the reporting sources has shown film of the IDF actually firing on innocents with intent to kill.

On the face of it, it makes little strategic sense for the IDF to help provide food and then kill the people who are desperately trying to feed themselves and their families.

Go to You Tube and type in, “IDF soldiers firing on Gaza civilians in food lines” and there will be “eyewitness accounts” from Gaza civilians and at least one former Green Beret. Videos show shooting victims on stretchers, but not one instance of a uniformed soldier deliberately firing into a crowd or firing at a specific person. With dramatic claims of hundreds being killed, it should not be difficult to document at least one purported transgression on film.

So why is there no film actually documenting IDF shootings?

The standard reason given for the lack of video confirmation is that the IDF has prevented journalists and photographers from entering the war zone to report.  This is a tactical decision, and the wisdom or ethics of such a policy are debatable, but it should be noted that explanation of why there is no video simply doesn’t wash.

Because of cell phones.

Cell phones are ubiquitous in Gaza. For the last two years, the pictures coming out of the war zone show many civilians with mobile phones. During the October 7 massacre, terrorists in Gaza reported their heinous activities to friends and relatives on mobile phones.

It is pretty much established there are plenty of available cell phones that can film video circulating among the populace. And if there weren’t, it is certain that it would be a top priority of Hamas to smuggle in mobile phones to record video of alleged atrocities in its efforts to mobilize world opinion against Israel. Still, for whatever reason, there is still no video being released of the IDF shooting victims waiting for food.

This is as much a propaganda war as it is a shooting conflict and one presumes that if there were such video, it would have gone viral by now. It should give pause.

Here in Chicago, people are familiar with what video can do. Several years ago, the video of the shooting of Laquon Macdonald, a young man carrying a knife but walking away from police, was released to the public. It undermined the police narrative, led to a detailed investigation and procedural reforms, and did much to ruin the reputations of then mayor Rahm Emanuel and States Attorney Anita Alvarez.  Such is the power of video.

Absence of proof is not proof of absence. The fact there is no video of the IDF actually shooting at Gazans in the food lines does not prove they are not deliberately killing civilians. Israel can perhaps be faulted for restricting journalists’ access; this strategy might be counterproductive because wider reporting might support the IDF contention that they are not firing into food lines.  Conversely, it might support the contrary claims of the UN agencies and news outlets. The absence of video certainly proves one thing, though: as the Greek playwright Aeschylus observed centuries ago, in war truth is the first casualty.

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Dr. Cory Franklin

Cory Franklin, physician and writer, is a frequent contributor to johnkassnews.com. Director of Medical Intensive Care at Cook County (Illinois) Hospital for 25 years, before retiring he wrote over 80 medical articles, chapters, abstracts, and correspondences in books and professional journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. In 1999, he was awarded the Shubin-Weil Award, one of only fifty people ever honored as a national role model for the practice and teaching of intensive care medicine. 

Since retirement, Dr. Franklin has been a contributor to the Chicago Tribune op-ed page. His work has been published in the New York Times, New York Post, Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times and excerpted in the New York Review of Books. Internationally, his work has appeared internationally in Spiked, The Guardian and The Jerusalem Post. For nine years he hosted a weekly audio podcast, Rememberingthepassed, which discusses the obituaries of notable people who have died recently. His 2015 book “Cook County ICU: 30 Years Of Unforgettable Patients and Odd Cases” was a medical history best-seller. In 2024, he co-authored The COVID Diaries: Anatomy of a Contagion As it Happened.

In 1993, he worked as a technical advisor to Harrison Ford and was a role model for the physician character Ford played in the film, The Fugitive.

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