On October 26, 2023, information about a Palestinian man, who was “allegedly being treated in a clinic the day before and was running healthy” the next day was disseminated on Facebook. “This is the Palestinian information war” – wrote the author of one of the posts and published 3 photos, one of which shows a man in a clinic, the second shows a person standing on the street, near a building, who does not have any injuries, and the third shows a person wrapped in a white cloth holding a phone.
The same information was also disseminated by Russian-language websites and Facebook accounts (1;2;3;4;5).
The claims voiced in the disseminated Facebook posts are false. In fact, the photos show different people. Photos and videos of the man in the clinic were circulated in August and September 2023, and in the photo taken on the street, we see a Palestinian person who systematically publishes content on social networks about the Israel-Hamas war.
In one of the circulated photos, we see a man standing on the street against the background of a bombed building. Myth Detector was able to identify the person using the photo search tool Pimeyes. The photo shows Saleh Aljafarawi, who lives in the Gaza Strip and shares videos with subscribers on his Instagram and Facebook accounts. A YouTube channel can also be found under his name, in the description of which we read that Saleh Aljafarawi is 25 years old Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip. According to the description, he is a singer. On the channel, which is not active at the moment, and the last video was published 7 months ago, some of his songs are also published.
In addition, a video dated October 25 can be found on his Instagram account, which is allegedly the source of the photo used by the Facebook users.
In the second photo published by the Facebook user, we see a person who is in a clinic. As the author claims, the photos show the same person, and the hospital video is staged. In fact, the video, the screenshot of which is being disseminated on social media, was posted on TikTok before the start of the Israel-Hamas war on September 3rd. The author of the video, according to the data specified in the account, is Esam Zandek. On his account, we find several more videos in which we see the same person. It is clear from the videos that his leg has been amputated.
On August 25, an article was published on the website of the pro-Palestinian “International Solidarity Movement”, according to which the leg of 16-year-old Muhammad Zendiq, lost his leg during the Israeli raid on Nur Shams refugee camp on July 24.
Reuters also verified the disseminated disinformation.
As for the third photo of the Facebook post, which shows a man wrapped in a white robe, it was circulated on various Telegram accounts in June before the start of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023, “Myth Detector” verified a number of false claims around the topic.
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