Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Ruby leads editorial, operations and initiatives at Newschecker. In her former avatar at New Delhi Television (NDTV), India’s leading national news network, she was a news anchor, supervising producer and senior output editor. Her over a decade-long career encompasses ground-breaking reportage from conflict zones and reporting on terror incidents, election campaigns, and gender issues. Ruby is an Emmy-nominated producer and has handled both local and international assignments, including the coverage of Arab Spring in 2011, the US Presidential elections in 2016, and ground reportage on the Kashmir issue since 2009.
Claim
Palestinian propaganda pushers share video of man holding up a toy baby as a dead baby.
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Fact
Newschecker closely analysed the viral video and noticed that it contained the watermark of a handle ‘omar_aldirawi’. We looked for the handle on both X and Instagram and found an Instagram page of a Palestinian journalist Omar Aldirawi. We found the same video posted on his Instagram page on December 1, 2023 with the caption “A mother bid farewell to her martyr child, who was no more than 5 months old and was one of the targets of the occupation. This morning after it violated the truce.”
The Instagram page had two other videos showing relatives mourning the same infant. You can see them here, and here.
We further analysed the comment section of the posts that claimed that the video showed a plastic baby and not a real one, where one of the users shared an image from Getty images, showing the same baby.
The page credited the image to Anadolou, a Turkey based state run news agency. The caption informed that the child was indeed 5 month old Muhammad Hani Al Zahar. The photographer was identified as Ali Jadallah.
We found many similar images on the Getty Images website, showing the deceased child being mourned by his mother and grandfather.
We also found an Instagram page of the photographer, which carried a similar photograph with the caption “Dead body of a 5-month-old Palestinian baby named Muhammad Hani Al-Zahar, is brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital by his mother Asmahan Attia Al-Zahar and grandfather Attia Abu Amra after the Israeli airstrikes at the end of the humanitarian pause in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza on December 1, 2023. 32 Palestinians were killed within 3 hours of the end of the humanitarian pause in Gaza.”
Thus, we find that the viral claims that the baby seen in the viral video being mourned by his mother and grandfather, is in fact a plastic doll are false. The baby was a 5-month-old Palestinian infant killed during one of the Israeli air raids on Gaza.
Result: False
Also read: Uttarakhand Rescue: AI Generated Image Shared As Team That Rescued 41 Workers Trapped In Tunnel
Our Sources
Instagram post by Omar Aldirawi, dated December 1, 2023
Tweet by @DemirciHabip, dated December 1, 2023
Images posted on the website of Getty Images
Instagram post by Ali Jadallah, dated December 1, 2023
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Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Ruby leads editorial, operations and initiatives at Newschecker. In her former avatar at New Delhi Television (NDTV), India’s leading national news network, she was a news anchor, supervising producer and senior output editor. Her over a decade-long career encompasses ground-breaking reportage from conflict zones and reporting on terror incidents, election campaigns, and gender issues. Ruby is an Emmy-nominated producer and has handled both local and international assignments, including the coverage of Arab Spring in 2011, the US Presidential elections in 2016, and ground reportage on the Kashmir issue since 2009.
