Photo does not show United Arab Emirates medical team in occupied Palestine to treat Israeli soldiers

What is the claim?

Social media users have shared an image of men wearing keffiyehs (a traditional Arab headdress) with the claim it shows the United Arab Emirates (UAE) medical team arriving in occupied Palestine to treat soldiers injured during the Israel-Hamas conflict. The post had 16,000 views at the time of writing this story. An archived version of the post can be found here.

A viral image circulating online. (Source: X/Facebook/screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the claim is false. The image is old and shows delegates from UAE, Egypt, and other countries visiting the Magen David Adom organization in Israel to learn emergency medical service technology.

Here are the facts

Through a reverse image search, we found the viral image predates the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. The same image was found in an official X (formerly Twitter) account of the embassy of Israel in the Gulf, "Israel in the Gulf" (archive here), posted on June 18, 2021. A rough translation of the caption of the posts states that members of the Arab and Jewish communities and medical professionals from the Magen David Adom (MDA) aid organization met a delegation from the Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, and Morocco. The MDA is the national emergency pre-hospital medical and blood services organization in Israel.

Screenshot of the Israel Embassy in the Gulf post. (Source: X/Screenshot)

Further, the MDA website also published many photos from the delegates' visit on June 18, 2021. It stated, "Young leaders and influencers from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Egypt who wanted to learn about the world's best emergency service organization visited MDA in Jerusalem." It added the delegation viewed a trauma simulation, drove an ambulance in a simulator, explored a wide range of MDAs' cutting-edge vehicles, and visited the dispatch center to witness the technology in operation. Many other pictures of the delegates' visit were posted on MDA's Facebook and X account.

The verdict

A three-year-old image of UAE, Morocco, Egypt, and Bahrain leaders and influencers visiting the MDA organization in Israel has been shared with the false claim a UAE medical team visited Israel to treat injured soldiers amid the conflict with Hamas in 2024. Therefore, we mark this claim as false.