Fact Check: Viral image of dead Palestinian child peddled as a plastic doll

Hyderabad: An (warning: graphic content) image of a dead Palestinian child wrapped in shroud is being widely shared on social media with many speculating it to be a doll.

The caption to the post reads, “#DontLookAway: Video of Hamas using a doll (yes a doll) to suggest it was a part of casualties caused by an IDF attack. Remember this, next time you hear about ‘casualties in Gaza’! (sic)”

A post on Facebook with the image said, “Hamas accidentally posted a video of a doll (yes a doll) suggesting that it was a part of casualties caused by an IDF attack.”

Even the Israel Foreign Ministry shared a video containing the images with the same claim: “Hamas accidentally posted a video of a doll (yes a doll) suggesting that it was a part of casualties caused by an IDF attack.”

Even The Free Press Journal, speculating that the video might be fake, reported, “The internet users are claiming that the dead body is not real but it is a doll wrapped in the white cloth. One of the users shared the video on social media and said that the Hamas militants uploaded the video but removed it after realising that the people came to know about the video being purported.”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claims were false.

On close analysis, we found a watermark on the viral video. Performing a reverse image search with the video’s keyframe, took us to the original upload by a Gaza-based photographer Momen Al Halabi. The same video was uploaded on the Instagram account by the photographer on October 12, 2023.

The photographer’s Instagram account contained many images of many casualties of war.

The video was uploaded with the caption, “Where are the Arabs, where are the Muslims, where are the people with conscience #غزة #gaza.”

We also found similar images of the same man in a grey shirt holding the dead body on Getty Images. The image was taken by an AFP photographer Mohammed Abed.

The caption of the image reads, “Graphic content / A Palestinian man holds a child wrapped in a shroud during a funeral for victims killed in a building that was hit by air strikes, as raging battles between Israel and the Hamas movement continue for the sixth consecutive day in Gaza City on October 12, 2023. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants entered Israel in a surprise attack leading Israel to declare war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip enclave on October 8. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)”

A similar photograph also taken by AFP photographer Mohammed Abed on Getty Images shows all three persons seen in the viral video. The image was captioned the same as above.

Lastly, speaking to a media organization called Liberation, AFP photographer Md Abed confirmed, “A Palestinian holds a child wrapped in a shroud during the funeral while fighting between Israel and the Hamas movement continues for the sixth consecutive day in Gaza City, October 12, 2023.”