Claim: A Twitter post by @Osint613 claims to show a child in Gaza faking injuries amidst the rubble, suggesting crisis actors are being used to fabricate stories of Israeli bombings.
Fact: The video in question is actually behind-the-scenes footage from a choreographed film shoot, not a depiction of real events in Gaza. This was very clear in the video’s original context when posted online by the film’s director, but this context was not reproduced in the claim.
On 15 May 2024, the Twitter page Open Source Intel (@Osint613) shared a video (archive) showing a child lying amidst the rubble, who then gets up unharmed. The caption states “Why do Gazans keep faking injuries?” and insinuates that Gazans are staging injuries.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found that the claim is false and the video has been shared out of context. A reverse image search of keyframes from the video found that the video was first published by the film’s creator, Mahmoud Maher Zaqout, a Palestinian photographer and director, on his TikTok page on 15 February 2022. This date is notably two years prior to the recent escalations in the Middle East, debunking any connection to current events.
Furthermore, the child featured in the video is an actor, part of a controlled film set, not a victim of conflict. The footage is intentionally released behind-the-scenes material from a choreographed shoot, intended for artistic purposes and not as a recording of real-life events. This was very clear in the video’s original context when first posted online by Zaqout, but this context was not reproduced in the claim.
By going through Zaqout’s social media profiles, Soch Fact Check found a similar scene in the trailer for his short film “Al-Ahed,” which depicts the efforts of firefighters and rescuers in Palestine. This trailer was released on 1 March 2022, on both Zaqout’s Instagram account and the Facebook page of the Palestinian Civil Defence, one of the main branches of the Palestinian Security Services, responsible for emergency services and rescue in areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
Virality
The misleading post by @Osint613 has been viewed over 186,000 times, with more than 3,500 likes and 1,900 reposts. The claim and video have also been published on Facebook here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The claim by @Osint613 that the video shows Gazans faking injuries is false. The footage is from a film set and was publicly acknowledged as such by the filmmaker. It does not depict real-life events or injuries in Gaza.
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Background image in cover photo: Al Jazeera
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