Are two Israeli teenagers, who recounted their experience of the Hamas attack on their kibbutz, paid actors? No, that's not true: Israeli-American teen Rotem Mathias is shown recounting the Hamas attack that left his parents dead while his sister, standing beside him, is trying to hold back tears, not laughing. The two were interviewed by ABC News for a report that aired on "Good Morning America" days after their parents were killed during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
The claim originated from a video (archived here) on TikTok by user @iondragoshoreaba2023 on October 18, 2023. The caption (translated into English from Romanian by Lead Stories staff) read:
Are these Israeli paid actors, or children of some victims? What's so funny, why are they laughing? Alert! Alert! Alert!
The author claims:
I think they are actors, what do you think? Otherwise why would this girl laugh? What is there to laugh about? Have you seen her?
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Oct 20 07:13:52 2023 UTC)
During an ABC News report that aired October 11, 2023, 16-year-old Rotem Mathias described the harrowing moment when Hamas militants stormed into their kibbutz in southern Israel. The girl in the video is his older sister, who is trying to hold back tears as he explains how he managed to survive. She is not laughing and is later comforted by a third person, who is not shown on camera.
Mathias' parents, Shlomi and Deborah, were killed, and a bullet struck Rotem in the stomach. He told CNN how his mother died trying to shield him and how he managed to survive by hiding under a blanket in a laundry room.
A separate report by CNN described the attack and how the teenager hid for more than 12 hours after he was shot, texting on his phone with people who were coaching him on how to breathe and how to manage "the blood that was coming out of his abdomen."
Hamas militants stormed the family's home and later returned to hunt for any survivors. They then set fire to Mathias' home and others in the kibbutz, forcing him to leave. He was eventually found and rescued by Israeli forces. Their parents are among some 1,400 Israelis killed since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
The author also links the post to the so-called Great Reset, saying the video is all "a theatre choreographed by the globalist elites," a conspiracy theory involving plans by global elites to control people that has strong antisemitic roots that have been debunked by Lead Stories numerous times.
