Old and unrelated image of a person sitting up in a body bag shared as evidence of Palestinian crisis actors

What's the claim?

As the Israel-Hamas war is entering its third week, the Health Ministry in Gaza reported that at least 6,546 Palestinians have been killed. Israeli officials have estimated that more than 1,400 people in Israel have also been killed, according to the Associated Press.

Social media users are spreading an image of a person in a body bag, sitting up and looking at their phone, as Palestinians using “crisis actors” amid the ongoing war. A post caption of the image reads: “One of the Gazans killed brutally by Israel is texting from another world.” Other users have harnessed the image as evidence that the number of casualties is false and fabricated. 

However, Logically Facts found that the image is unrelated and predates the ongoing conflict. 

What we found

A reverse image search led to other social media posts with the same image. These posts on Telegram and X (formerly Twitter) date back to Spring 2023 and predate the current war. 

On the left is the viral image shared on social media, and the image on the right is one of the search results of the same image 
dating back to May 21, 2023 (Source: X/Logically Facts)

Further investigations led to results from the spring of 2023 on LinkedIn, where the image is shared multiple times as humor and, therefore, altogether unrelated to war. 

Image shows one of the multiple search results of the same image as a meme on LinkedIn. These shares also date back to the spring and summer of 2023. (Source: LinkedIn/Logically Facts)

Misinformation and misattributed footage have surged amid the war between Israel and Hamas. Logically Facts continues to monitor and cover misleading and erroneous claims as they emerge.

The verdict

The image is not evidence that Palestinians are using actors or that the number of casualties is false or fabricated. The unrelated image dates back to spring 2023, predating the current conflict. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.