Since October 7, 2023, when an attack from the Gaza Strip against Israel was launched, a number of questionable videos and images have been shared regarding the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.
This tweet, for instance, claims to show children participating in the conflict. It shows a young girl waving a Palestinian flag at a soldier, presumably, an Israeli soldier.
Background
The conflict between Israel and Palestine has a longstanding history involving Israel itself, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. The Council on Foreign Relations dates back to the end of the nineteenth century. After the United Nations passed Resolution 181 in 1947, also known as the Partition Plan. As a consequence of this resolution, the State of Israel was created which then resulted in the first Arab-Israeli war between 1948 to 1949. Over the preceding years, there have been conflicts involving the partition.
While the United Nations condemns violations of children in armed conflicts, a report by the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) shows that towards the end of 2021, 450 million children were already living in conflict zones, a record high in 20 years. By July 2022, 36.5 million children were displaced from their homes as a result of conflict, violence and other crises.
Verification
A reverse image search shows that this video was taken out of context. According to this publication by Middle East Analysts, News on VK; a Russian social media platform, the video was taken in 2021. A translation of the post attached to this video reads, “A Palestinian girl waves the Palestinian flag in front of the Israeli occupiers in Masafer Yatta yesterday.”
The same reverse image search provides more results with the same video, here, here and here. From these results, details show the video is two years old and taken in Masafer Yatta. Moreover, the name ‘Hisham Abu Shaqrah’ is embedded in all these videos.
Going by a keyword search of ‘Hisham Abu Shaqra’ on both Google and Facebook, a profile of a Palestinian videographer based in the West Bank comes up.
Verdict
Claims that this video shows a Palestinian girl taking part in the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel are mis-contextualized.
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