Video shows Palestinian man carrying the body of a child, not a doll

The conflict between Israel and Hamas escalated to a war on October 7, resulting in 3,000 deaths in Gaza and more than 1,400 deaths in Israel. Meanwhile, an airstrike on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza on October 17 has left hundreds dead. Palestinian officials have blamed Israel for the attack, while the Israel Defense Forces released a 30-second video claiming it couldn't have been caused by an Israeli airstrike and that a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad military organization hit the hospital. 

What is the claim?

A video has been circulating on social media claiming to show a Palestinian man holding a doll, pretending to hold the body of a dead child. The viral video shows a man in a grey t-shirt carrying a body wrapped in a white shroud. Several users shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, “Welcome to Islamic University of Victim Card. . Here you can learn how to covert a baby doll into a child that’s being shot dead by  #ISRAEL. . They forgot to blur the image of doll and caught red handed.” One such post, shared on October 14, has gained over 162,000 views and 403 likes. The State of Israel's official X account too posted the photo on October 14 with the caption, "Hamas accidentally posted a video of a doll (yes a doll) suggesting that it was a part of casualties caused by an IDF attack." Archived versions of the posts can be found here, here and here.

Screenshots of the viral posts on X. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the man in the viral video is actually carrying the body of a child who died in the Israel-Hamas war.

What did we find?

We reviewed the video and found a watermark in Arabic that translates to “Momen El Halabi" -  we found that Halabi is a Palestinian-based photographer. A longer version of the viral video was published on his Instagram account on October 12. The caption suggests that the video is from the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Halabi shared a story on October 17 on his Instagram account, reacting to a post claiming that the video showed a doll. He clarified that the man in the video is actually carrying a child who died in the Israel-Hamas war. The text in the story read, “Nope. It wasn't a doll, it was a real child who they killed for simply existing. Israel is losing its propaganda war. How evil must you be to kill a child then claim it was a doll afterwards. What on earth are we dealing with over here? This was documented by @momen.h1, a Palestinian photographer who risks his life daily to document their agression.”

Logically Facts has reached out to Halabi for a comment. This fact-check will be updated if and when we receive a response.

Clarification posted by photographer Momen El Halabi. (Source: Instagram)

We also found an image published by Getty Images which shows the same man with the child seen in the viral video. According to the caption, the image shows a Palestinian man holding a child wrapped in a shroud during a funeral for victims killed in a building that was hit by air strikes on October 12. The credit for the image has been attributed to AFP photographer Mohamed Abed. We compared the Getty Images photo with screenshots from the viral video and noticed that the man has the same logo and button on his t-shirt and is wearing the same ring. The deceased child's face is also the same in both the visuals. The image comparison concluded that the viral video shows the same incident captured in the Getty Images photo and shows the man carrying a child, not a doll.

Comparison between the viral video and the image published by Getty Images. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

On October 12, an X account called Times of Gaza shared some photos showing bodies lying on the ground. One of the images shows the man in a grey t-shirt holding a body wrapped in a shroud. 

The verdict

A video showing visuals of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war was shared to claim that a man faked the death of a child. In reality, the man was actually carrying a child’s body wrapped in a shroud. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.