No, this video does not show a Palestinian child trapped under the rubble

What's the claim?

Amid Israel's ongoing invasion of Gaza, a video purportedly showing a Palestinian child trapped under rubble has been widely shared on social media. 

One X (formerly Twitter) user who shared the video wrote, "A Palestinian child trapped under the rubble awaits help. Such a heartbreaking sight." As of the article's publication, the post had accumulated over 2.2 million views, more than 100,000 likes, and approximately 56,000 reshares. Archived versions of such posts can be found here, here, and here.

A Facebook user also shared stills from the video with the caption, "A child in Gaza, Palestine, was trapped under the rubble of a fallen house. If a stone is moved, the child could die, and if he remains, he may also not survive. This is the reality for the children of Gaza."

Screenshot of claims made online. (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the video was filmed in Syria, and the full version of the clip reveals the child was peeking through a hole in a wall.

What we found

A reverse image search of keyframes from the video led us to a similar video posted on X by a user with the handle "@Quriash911" (archived here). This video was originally tied to a TikTok account under the username "userftdvvrl92i." When we tried to locate this account on TikTok, we found it was withdrawn from the platform. However, we found the archive versions of the videos shared by this account on Archive.ph, including the now-viral video. The video was originally shared on October 26 and it was archived on October 28.

Screenshot of the archived video published on October 26. (Source: TikTok/Archive.ph/Screenshot)  

Clicking through the archived link to view the live page redirected us to a post shared by a TikTok account under the username "abuhudhaifaabsi2." This account shared a slightly extended version of the viral clip on October 27, 2024, with a clarification.

The video included a caption in Arabic, which, when translated, read: "For God's sake, the girl is unharmed and is playing as she emerges from the side of the house. She is in Syria, not Gaza. Please do not share this video claiming she is trapped under rubble. There is nothing wrong, thank God."

On the same profile, we discovered another video (archived here) of the same child peeking out from the same hole in the wall and playing, but in a different outfit. This video was shared on October 29, 2024. All of this evidence confirms that the viral clip in question is not from Gaza and does not show a child trapped under rubble.

Screenshot of the TikTok post having the longer version of the clip. (Source: TikTok/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

Kashif, a Palestinian Observatory for Verification and Media Literacy platform, (archived here) has contacted the girl's mother, who originally posted the video on her TikTok account with the username "userftdvvrl92i." She confirmed that the video was first shared on October 26, 2024, and explained that she filmed her daughter, Iman, playing with the drain hole in their house in the Idlib countryside in northern Syria.

Therefore it confirms that the video was taken in Syria and shows a girl playing in a hole in the house.

The verdict

The original video shows the girl was not under the rubble but rather looking through a hole in the wall and playing. Therefore we have marked this claim as false.