Several official social media accounts linked to the Israeli government shared a video of a dead body of a child from Gaza, and falsely claimed that it was a doll, and not a real child.
BOOM found this claim to be false; the video showed a four-year-old child from Gaza named Omar Bilal Al-Banna, who died on October 12, 2023, after his neighbourhood, Al-Zaytoun, was struck by Israeli airstrikes.
The child's identity was confirmed by Palestinian videographer Momen El Halabi, who has been documenting the situation in Gaza following Israel's retaliation to the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, to Arabic fact-checking outlet Misbar, and French news outlet Libération.
Islamist militant group Hamas launched one of the biggest military offensives against Israel on October 7, 2023, garnering retributive attack from Israeli forces, with ongoing bombardments on the Gaza strip, and a complete blockade of the area by Israel. So far, the conflict has claimed more than 1,400 lives in Israel, and more than 3,478 Palestinians in Gaza, out of which over 600 are reportedly children. The post is viral in this backdrop.
Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad shared a video showing the body of the child held in the arms of a man in a grey shirt with the caption, "Hamas is desperate! They released a video showing a dead Palestinian baby... but wait for the catch. It's not a real baby; it's a doll; yes, you read that right, a baby doll! They realized their mistake and already deleted the video. This exposes how hard the lying and slanderous propaganda arm of Hamas and the Palestinians works. It’s time we stop believing your crap! In the end, Hamas will be destroyed!"
Click here to view an archive of the tweet.
This claim was further amplified by the State of Israel's official X handle, along with the official handles of Israeli Embassy in France and Austria.
Many Indian X users also shared the false claim along with the video of the dead body of the child.
Click here, here and here to view tweets by Indian X users.
Fact Check
BOOM found that an image of a very similar body of a child wrapped in white shroud, and held by the same man in grey shirt were featured in a photo shared on Getty Images, taken by an AFP photographer named Mohammed Abed.
The caption of the image states, "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."
We found another image by Abed on Getty Images showing a similar scenario from a different angle, which also featured the same man in grey shirt, along with the baby in white shroud, with the caption, "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."
Abed spoke to CheckNews, the fact-checking wing of French media outlet Libération, confirming that the body in white shroud being held by the person in grey is in fact a dead body, and not a doll.
Furthermore, we also found another video showing the same man with the body of the dead child, shared by Palestinian videographer Momen El Halabi on Instagram.
Speaking to CheckNews, and Arabic fact-checking platform Misbar, El Halabi confirmed that the body covered in shrouds was of a dead child, and not a doll.
He also told CheckNews that the body being carried was of a four-year-old child named Omar Bilal Al-Banna, who lived in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza. He added that the man in grey polo t-shirt holding the child "was a relative, and not the child's father, who was killed a few years ago by the Occupation forces".
Al-Zaytoun was one of the many neighbourhoods of Gaza that was struck by Israeli airstrikes on October 12, which coincides with the date of Al-Banna's death, as stated by the AFP images.