(Trigger Warning: Distressing visuals)
A video which shows an injured man getting up when a woman comes to see him is being shared on social media platforms to claim that the man was seen faking injuries.
What did the users say?: An X (formerly Twitter) premium subscriber shared the video with a caption saying, "Don't worry mom, it's only for the camera."
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
The video has viewed more than 15,000 times at the time this report was being written.
(More archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)
What is the truth?: The Quint found that the man was trying to reassure his mother and was heard saying that he was fine. There was no mention of the word "camera" as claimed.
Further, one can see injuries on the man's hand and chest area.
The video was taken at the Nasser Hospital located in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip.
What led us to the truth?: At first, we noticed some injury marks on the man's body, who was seen in the viral video. His hand appears to be burnt and there's a blood spot on his chest.
In the video, the man can be seen having some injury marks.
(Source: Viral video/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Longer version of the video: We performed a Google Lens search on the keyframes of the video and found a longer version posted on a verified Instagram handle named 'eye.on.palestine'.
The video was uploaded on 12 November and was captioned, "Injuries arrive at the hospital following Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. 12.11.23 Via @mohmmed_awad89."
The video showed the same injured person being brought to the hospital, while the woman can be seen crying in the background.
We also reached out to Mohammed Awad, who is a journalist, for his input. This report will be updated as and when a response is received.
Hints in the longer version: There were two things that we noticed in the longer version of the video. First, the injured man was seen with blood on his face while he was being carried inside the hospital.
Second, the man in a white t-shirt and the woman can be seen in the background.
The video showed the same person being carried inside the hospital.
(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)
What did the videographer say?: Awad refuted the viral claim to Kashif, a fact-checking organisation in Palestine, and confirmed that he was the one who took the video.
"I was standing at the door of Nasser Medical Hospital, and this woman came down screaming, so I walked after her. Her son was injured in the head area and they admitted him to intensive care, so she thought he had died. In the video, they were just reassuring her that her son was fine. Even the injured young man sat up and took the bandage off his head to tell her that he was fine."Mohmmed Awad, a journalist
What was the conversation in the viral video about?: Team WebQoof reached out to Riham Abu Aita from Kashif to understand what people in the viral video were talking about.
The man in white t-shirt was heard saying, "Nothing serious, look he is okay."
The person in black t-shirt soon followed and said "Don't be afraid, he is okay."
The injured man said, "It's nothing, I'm okay."
It is clear that the word "camera" was not mentioned at all during the conversation. The injured man was trying to reassure his mother about his condition.
Geolocating the place: Taking a hint from Awad's statement, we searched for 'Nasser Hospital' on Google Maps.
We found an image dating back to 2016 that showed some similarities with the visuals seen in the longer version.
A comparison highlights the similarities between both visuals.
(Source: Google Maps/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
A tried and tested template: The Quint recently published a story on how the death toll in Gaza is being questioned by sharing false and misleading claims since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
These claims have gone extremely viral without providing any proof that people in Gaza are staging injuries and deaths. You can read our report here.
Conclusion: A video of an injured man reassuring his mother is being shared to falsely claim that it shows a person faking injuries in Gaza.
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