LONDON: Ex-England footballer and BBC sports presenter Gary Lineker has drawn support and criticism after retweeting a video showing Palestinian boys and teens being dragged away and caged by Israeli soldiers.
Lineker commented on his retweet just one word: “Sickening.”
The video was originally posted to Twitter by Ben White, an author, researcher and activist, who wrote on his tweet about the video: “Israeli soldiers in Hebron bravely defend themselves from a number of existential threats disguised as defenseless Palestinian children.”
Lineker’s retweet drew a mix of comments, with @LTCPeterLerner (Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, former spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces) telling Lineker: “Sorry, Gary, you’ve completely missed the point. When kids throw stones they are a public menace. They need to be stopped. Yes, the video is unpleasant but it conveniently shares only a glimpse of what happened, the aftermath of their actions. You should be wiser than this. #Fail”
Lineker fired back a short missive: “They should be stuffed into a small cage? You should be wiser. #fail“
Lerner replied: “No, they should be in school. Oh but their leadership closed the schools so they would go on a wild rampage in the streets. That is what is sickening. What would you do?”
Lineker then quickly retorted: “Treat them like humans. Bye.”
But that wasn’t the end — the exchange between celebrity and Twitterati continued as Lineker replied almost a dozen times, defending his video post for around three hours after it was first posted.
Lineker’s retweeted video via Ben White was of footage originally posted to YouTube by B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. The organization states that it tries “to educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public; and help to create a human rights culture in Israel.”
B’Tselem’s video has been watched just 2,743 times (at the time of going to press) on YouTube, where it is titled, “Hebron routine: minors arrested in city center after clashes with soldiers.”
The video features an explanation as to why Israeli soldiers were making arrests in Hebron, stating that Palestinian youths threw stones at them on Oct. 13, 2017, after which the Israeli army caged 18 “young men.”
The shorter Twitter version, which has been viewed more than 731,000 times, edits out this information.
Lineker’s retweet has been liked over 12,000 times and retweeted itself more than 9,000 times. Comments under Lineker’s retweet are party anti-Israel, partly pro-Israel, but many focus on the age of the boys being arrested by the Israeli army. One Twitter user, @tones1971, commented: “They weren’t just arrested. They were stuffed in cages. That’s child abuse.”
A request for comment via Lineker’s Twitter feed went unanswered.
BBC star Gary Lineker strongly defends tweet about Israeli army arrests
BBC star Gary Lineker strongly defends tweet about Israeli army arrests
Israeli court overturns conviction of officer who assaulted Palestinian journalist, citing ‘Oct. 7 PTSD’
- Judge sentenced Yitzhak Sofer to 300 hours of community service, saying officer “devoted his life to Israel’s security” and conviction was “disproportionate to severity of his actions”
- Footage shows Sofer throwing photojournalist Mustafa Alkharouf to the ground, and repeatedly beating and kicking him while he covered Palestinian gatherings near Al-Aqsa Mosque
LONDON: An Israeli court overturned the conviction of a border police officer who assaulted a Palestinian journalist, ruling his actions were influenced by post-traumatic stress disorder from serving during the Oct. 7 2023 attacks.
On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court sentenced officer Yitzhak Sofer to 300 hours of community service for assaulting Anadolu Agency photojournalist Mustafa Alkharouf in occupied East Jerusalem in December 2023.
Footage shows Sofer and other officers drawing weapons, throwing Alkharouf to the ground, and repeatedly beating and kicking him while he covered Palestinian gatherings near Al-Aqsa Mosque amid heavy restrictions.
Alkharouf was hospitalized with facial and body injuries. His cameraman, Faiz Abu Ramila, was also attacked.
Anadolu photojournalist Mustafa Alkharouf violently attacked by Israeli army in occupied East Jerusalem while covering Palestinian prayers near Al-Aqsa Mosque
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) December 15, 2023
Incident highlights ongoing restrictions on Friday prayers and press freedom in region https://t.co/exT6XqjEaA pic.twitter.com/pqugK9HnOt
Sofer had been convicted in September 2024 of assault causing bodily harm (acquitted of threats) and initially faced six months’ community service, as recommended by Mahash, the Justice Ministry’s police misconduct unit.
Judge Amir Shaked accepted the defense request to cancel the conviction, replacing it with community service.
He cited Sofer’s PTSD from responding to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, noting the officer had “no prior criminal record” and had “devoted his life to Israel’s security.”
“The court cannot ignore this when considering whether the defendant’s conviction should stand,” he said, adding that while the incident is “serious and does cross the criminal threshold,” the conviction in place could cause Sofer harm “disproportionate to the severity of his actions.”
The ruling comes amid surging attacks on journalists in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since Israel’s war on Gaza began.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported Israel responsible for two-thirds of the 129 media workers killed worldwide in 2025, the deadliest year on record, citing a “persistent culture of impunity” and lack of transparent probes.
Reporters Without Borders called the Israeli army the “worst enemy of journalists” in its 2025 report, with nearly half of global reporter deaths in Gaza.
Foreign journalists face raids, arrests and intimidation. In late January 2026, Israel’s Supreme Court granted a delay on ruling a ban on foreign media access to Gaza.
