Claim: A picture shows children killed in the 2023 war between Israel and Hamas in Palestine. Three other images we found circulating online are also unrelated to the ongoing war.
Fact: The image actually depicts the dead bodies of children killed in a toxic gas attack in Syria in August 2013. The second image showing a young girl looking at the dead body of her brother, who was shot by an Israeli tank, was taken in Gaza City in July 2014. The third and fourth photos, which show men carrying dead children retrieved from the rubble of buildings flattened by Israeli airstrikes, are from Gaza City in May 2021.
On 14 October 2023, X (formerly Twitter) user @WalidMahmodRouk posted (archive) a picture showing the dead bodies of children apparently killed in Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza after Hamas launched an offensive over a week prior.
@WalidMahmodRouk captioned the post as follows:
“CHILD GENOCIDE IN PALESTINE. 614 Palestinian children murdered by the Israeli IOF Forces. #Gazagenocide”
Fact or Fiction?
The image is from 21 August 2013, in Damascus, the capital of Syria. It is also available on the British stock photography agency Alamy here, with the following caption:
“Dead children lie on the ground as Syrian rebels claim they were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria on August 21, 2013. The Syrian government has denied the claims from the opposition that it has used chemical weapons. The UN is investigating. UPI/Diaa El Din.”
It also appears on the website of UPI, or the United Press International, here.
It appears that this image started proliferating on social media with this tweet by @ShaykhSulaiman, a UK-based “investigative journalist” affiliated with “The Roundtable Show.”
It is important to note here that the number of children who have been killed in Palestine has been increasing every day. According to a 19 December 2023 update by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the number of Palestinians killed since 7 October — the start of the war — has risen to more than 19,600, of which over 7,700 were children; upwards of 52,500 injuries have been recorded as well.
Similarly, at least 1,200 Israelis have been killed and upwards of 5,400 injured.
We also came across an 15 October 2023 tweet by X user @YourFellowArab who posted (archive) four pictures, including the one debunked above, showing children killed apparently in Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
@YourFellowArab captioned the post as follows:
“How ashamed are you gonna be in 5 years when you look back & know that you stayed quiet when millions of children were being wiped out in front of your eyes? 🇵🇸🇮🇱 How ashamed are you gonna be when you realized you stared, with YOUR OWN EYES… at pictures of innocent woman & babies burnt by missiles and know that you chose to believe the media instead of yourself? In America a black man used to be considered 3/5 of a white man. What’s an Arab… 0/5?”
The first image from @YourFellowArab’s tweet is from 28 July 2014 in Gaza City in the Palestinian Territory’s Gaza Strip. It is available on Alamy here, with the following caption:
“Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territory. 28th July, 2014. Ansam 9 years, looks to the body of her brother Sameh Jned 4 years during the last look to his body in their family house attend the funeral in jabaliya refugee camp North Gaza Strip on 28 July 2014 Sameh were shot from an israeli tank’s fire in the garden of his family home Credit: Ali Jadallah/APA Images/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News.”
The second and third images from @YourFellowArab’s tweet are from 16 May 2021 in Gaza City. They are also available on Alamy here and here, with the following captions:
“A Palestinian man carries a dead child taken out of the rubble of a destroyed residential building following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, Sunday, May 16, 2021. The Israeli airstrikes flattened three buildings and killed at least 26 people Sunday, medics said, making it the deadliest single attack since heavy fighting broke out between Israel and the territory’s militant Hamas rulers nearly a week ago. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra).”
“Palestinian men carry a dead child pulled out of the rubble of a destroyed residential building following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, Sunday, May 16, 2021. The Israeli airstrikes flattened three buildings and killed at least 26 people Sunday, medics said, making it the deadliest single attack since heavy fighting broke out between Israel and the territory’s militant Hamas rulers nearly a week ago. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra).”
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the images here, here, here, here, and here on X, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here and here on Instagram, here on YouTube, and here on a news website.
We found that the images were posted out of context previously on Facebook on 19 December 2014 in relation to the Pakistani Taliban’s assault on the Army Public School (APS) on 16 December 2014, commonly known as the ‘2014 APS attack’ which took place in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan.
Conclusion: The image actually depicts the dead bodies of children killed in a toxic gas attack in Syria in August 2013. The second image, which shows a young girl looking at the dead body of her brother, who was shot by an Israeli tank, was taken in Gaza City in July 2014. The third and fourth photos, which show men carrying dead children retrieved from the rubble of buildings flattened by Israeli airstrikes, are from Gaza City in May 2021.
Background image in cover photo: Latrach Med Jamil
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