Fact Check: Photo of women students in heavily damaged classroom is from Gaza, not Afghanistan
Amidst the ongoing Afghanistan crisis, a photo reportedly showing female Afghan students being taught in a heavily damaged classroom is circulating on
By Newsmeter Network Published on 31 Aug 2021 2:50 PM GMT
Hyderabad: Amidst the ongoing Afghanistan crisis, a photo reportedly showing female Afghan students being taught in a heavily damaged classroom is circulating on social media. The photo shows a large gaping hole on the blackboard.
It is shared with the caption, "No words can explain the agony of young Afghan women who will now be forced to drop out of schools and bury their dreams."
Click here, here and here to view a few posts.
Fact Check
The claim is false as the image is from the 2014 Gaza attack.
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found the same photo on Getty Images. The description said it was taken in Sobhi Abu Karsh school in Gaza City's al-Shejaiya neighborhood in August 2014. It read, "Palestinian man inspects the heavily damaged Sobhi Abu Karsh school in Gaza City's al-Shejaea neighborhood on August 5, 2014, as a 72-hour humanitarian truce went into effect in the Gaza Strip after a month of fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces. Hamas may have haemorrhage rockets and fighters, but its latest war with Israel has boosted its popularity in the Gaza Strip even if long-term gains look remote, analysts say."
Similar images were also published by Al Jazeera, Ummid, and The Associated Press. Classrooms were destroyed due to Israeli shelling. A part of the Associated Press description read, "Some half million Gaza children made a delayed return to school on Sunday after a devastating 50-day war with Israel that killed more than 2,100 Palestinians and damaged hundreds of school buildings."
The 2014 conflict between Palestine and Israel lasted 50 days between July and August and ended in a truce. On the Palestinian side, 2,251 people, of whom 1,462 were civilians, were killed and on the Israeli side, 67 soldiers were killed along with six civilians. (Read report by BBC News)
Evidently, the viral picture is old and is not related to the ongoing Afghan crisis. Thus, the claim is false.
