Reuters on Thursday retracted an article published in February after it was unable to authenticate information provided by the family of Diaa El Agha - who was imprisoned in 1992 for the murder of an Israeli national, according to the news agency.
The article, headlined as “Gaza mother's hopes for return of long-jailed son dashed,” claimed the man murdered by Agha was a Mossad agent - the claim Reuters acknowledged it could not authenticate.
“A Reuters story about a Palestinian mother's wait for the release of her long-jailed son, who was convicted of killing an Israeli, is withdrawn,” Reuters said in a published statement. “Reuters has been unable to verify a link between the victim and Israel's Mossad spy agency, as stated by the Palestinian prisoner's family. There will be no substitute version.”
Despite claiming it was the prisoner’s family who claimed the victim worked for the Mossad, the original article, written by Ramadan Abed, read: “Diaa El Agha was imprisoned in 1992, aged 17, for killing an officer of the Israeli spy agency Mossad…" in the first mention of the victim - not citing the family.
In the second mention of Agha's victim, the article read: "On his family's website a newspaper report shows a picture of an Israeli soldier holding up the pickaxe used to kill the Mossad agent. An image of Diaa, who the website said was sentenced to 99 years, is superimposed."
Agha was released into the Gaza Strip as part of a recent hostage-ceasefire deal which saw 33 hostages, abducted from Israel, returned in exchange for 1000s of Palestinian prisoners and a pause in fighting. Reuters photos pictured Agha with his mother in Khan Yunis.
Who was Amatzia Ben-Haim?
Only in the second mention was the victim a Mossad agent attributed to the family of Agha.
Gilead Ini, a Senior Research Analyst at CAMERA, identified Agha’s victim, whose name was unmentioned in the Reuters article, as Amatzia Ben-Haim. Israel’s National Insurance Website identified Ben-Haim as having retired from the Sayeret Matkal military unit - not Mossad.
“He participated in many secret operations, both as a soldier and as a commander, and his resourcefulness in difficult situations contributed to their success,” the National Insurance website read.
Ben-Haim had saved the life of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Suez Canal, former Knesset member Avshalom Vilan was quoted as saying in multiple Israeli outlets, in 2009 and 2019. Netanyahu reportedly slipped during a visit to the naval base, and Ben-Haim pulled him back onto the boat.
After finishing his time in the military and his studies, Ben-Haim worked in a factory in Kibbutz Yad-Mordechai.
While working alone in a greenhouse near his kibbutz, Ben-Haim was beaten to death with a hoe by Agha, an Arab worker on the Moshav, and his body was discovered 30 minutes later.
Ben-Haim was 45 when he was murdered and left behind a wife and three children. Netanyahu delivered a eulogy at his funeral.