Old Images are linked to recent Gaza attacks amidst the Israel-Palestine conflict - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 18, 2021
Multiple images are being shared on social media claiming them as photos of recent Gaza attacks amidst the Israel-Palestine conflict. They can be seen here, here, here, and here. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Recent images of Gaza amidst the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Fact: The first two images were reported to be from Gaza, but they are old images. Similarly, the next two images are from Syria which were widely circulated for many years across social media platforms. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Image-1:
When reverse image search was done on the image, a Facebook post published on 03 April 2019 with the same image was found. The post mentions that the photo was from Gaza where ‘Al Shawa’ family was celebrating the birthday of their son Walid al-Shawa on the ruins of their house which was destroyed a few days ago by Israeli shelling; photo credits were given to Belal Khaled/ TRT. On further search, we found several social media posts and websites that carried the same image which can be seen here and here. None of the posts were related to the recent Gaza attacks.
Image-2:
When reverse image search was done on the image, a news article with the same image, published on 03 June 2016 was found. According to the article, the Hawn Media channel published a photo of a Palestinian girl addressing the consciences of human beings and wrote: This Palestinian girl, whose tears will not be shed, whose house was destroyed by Israel and she collected her books and hugged her and could not calm down. Seeing these scenes, it affects the heart of every human being. Another article on a website mentions that the image was from Gaza, but this was published on 19 October 2020. On further search, we found that this image was being circulated on social media since 2016. Some of these posts can be seen here and here. Therefore, this image does not belong to the recent Gaza attacks.
Image-3:
When reverse image search was done on the image, a YouTube video uploaded on 10 May 2014 containing the image was found. The video is titled as People of Syria Tour chanting Abu Ammar. On further research, we found that a couple of Tumblr posts, one published on 27 December 2011 and the other published 5 years ago and titled A Young Boy Cleaning Blood At His Parents Slaughterhouse’  contained the same image. Therefore, this image does not belong to the recent Gaza attacks.
Image-4:
When reverse image search was done on the image, a news article containing the image and published on 03 October 2016 was found. The article reports that a photo trending on social media shows a boy in Syria defending his wounded mother with cutlery from a soldier pointing a gun at him. Another article published on 01 March 2017 also had the same image but did not report where the photo was taken from. A Facebook post published on 01 November 2018 had the same image claiming that it was from Syria.
To sum it up, old Images are linked to recent Gaza attacks amidst the Israel-Palestine conflict.