No, it’s not a doll as claimed by Israel rather it’s a dead child’s body
Claim
Hamas propaganda blunder: dolls instead of children Hamas TG channels mistakenly began distributing a video of “funerals of children killed by Zionists” in which the faces were not blurred. As it turned out, they were puppets. The video was erased on all Hamas channels, but not quickly enough – it was saved by several users.
Rating
Explanation
The above 17-second video post shared by the X account, ‘Voice of Europe’, claimed that the Hamas organization has made a propaganda blunder. The user claims that Hamas released a video of “funerals of children killed by Zionists where the faces are not blurred and it turned out they are puppets and not real.”
We are delighted to introduce you to #Pallywood. A spectacular blockbuster was filmed in the #Gaza Strip, purporting to represent victims of IDF strikes. The victim turned out to be a doll.
When do you think the second series of these breathtaking episodes will be released? pic.twitter.com/Gn6FnUJ7oy
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) October 14, 2023
This same claim was shared by almost all the Israel X accounts and even amplified by some journalists from various countries. Also, some Embassies like the Embassy of Israel in France and the Embassy of Israel in Austria have earlier carried the same claims which are now removed from their respective X handles. The viral post is shared by many social media users and can be seen here, here, here, here,and here. Come, let’s check the authenticity of this heartbreaking claim.
What’s the truth?
When we started our research using the relevant keywords in Google, we came across two pictures from “Getty Images” that matched the people in the viral post. Yes, the same man wearing the grey Tshirt holding the baby in the sensational post is seen in the Getty Images shot on 12 October in Gaza.
The image was shot by the AFP photographer namely ‘Mohammed Abed’ and captioned as “People stand by the bodies of victims of Israeli air strikes outside the morgue of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on October 12, 2023 as raging battles between Israel and the Hamas movement continue for the sixth consecutive day. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip, entered southern Israel in a surprise attack leading Israel to declare war on Hamas in Gaza on October 8.”
We also got another close shot image of the man wearing grey Tshirt with the dead baby from the Getty image. This was also shot on the same day and captioned as, “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.”
When we advanced our research we found out that the photographer Mohammed Abed has confirmed with CheckNews a french fact-checking website of Liberation that the baby covered in the white shroud cloth is not a doll but a real dead child.
This proves that the claim stating that the video shows a doll is totally false.
When we had a closer look we found a arabic watermark in the viral video and searched further and located the original video shared by an Instagram user namely, ‘Momen El Halabi’on 12 October. When we checked his bio we came to know that he is a photographer based on Palestine who shared the video initially.
We used relevant keywords and found out that the photographer Momen has confirmed to Misbar and CheckNews that the body wrapped in the white cloth was a dead child and not a doll. Misbar, an Arab fact-checking website has reported the same news on 16 October with a title “The Video Shows a Murdered Palestinian Infant, Not a Doll.”
This clearly proves that the above video claiming that the body is a doll by many Israel accounts is false. In reality, the dead body was a four-year-old child named Omar Bilal Al-Banna, who lived in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza.
Conclusion:
Thus, we conclude with all the available evidence that the viral video claiming that the body shown is a doll is completely false. However, in truth the body is real and actually shows a dead 4 year old boy.
