Israeli Journalist Harassed Over Report on Iran Strike

An Israeli military journalist faced a barrage of death threats and harassment after his report on an Iranian missile strike inadvertently influenced the outcome of multimillion-dollar bets on a popular online prediction platform.

On March 10, Emanuel Fabian, a defense correspondent for the Times of Israel, published a brief article detailing how an Iranian ballistic missile had landed in an open area near the town of Beit Shemesh, outside Jerusalem, without causing any injuries. The strike was one of four Iranian missiles launched at Israel that day, and according to military officials, it was the only one not intercepted. Fabian's account, supported by dashboard footage of the explosion, quickly drew unwanted attention from anonymous individuals linked to Polymarket, a U.S.-based cryptocurrency platform where users wager on real-world events.

The harassment began hours after the article appeared. Fabian received emails, WhatsApp messages, and posts on social media demanding he revise his story to claim the object that fell was debris from an interceptor missile rather than the projectile itself. Under Polymarket's rules for its "Iran strikes Israel on March 10" market, only a...