PalestineFactCheck

As part of the “Pallywood” campaign, Israeli accounts question real scenes of the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and claim that they are fake 

By: Fatima Al-Khatib Translation: shoroq Masri, Lana Dmaidi

فاطمة الخطيبتدقيق المعلومات - تحقق
The claim

“Pallywood” campaign questions the integrity of the Deir al-Balah massacre photos.

Israeli accounts and others that support the Israeli occupation published a picture showing children lying on the ground covered in blood, and they accompanied it with comments questioning the truth of the event, and that they were fake scenes from Gaza under the hashtag “Pallywood”.

The Palestinian Observatory “Tahaqaq” tracked the truth of the claims attached to the photo, by Searching public sources using digital search tools, and it was found that the claim was misleading.The photo documents real scenes of an Israeli massacre in the city of Deir al-Balah, but it was circulated in a skeptical context.

Israeli massacre in Deir al-Balah

The photo was documented by journalist Hammam Younis Al-Zaytouniya yesterday, Tuesday, August 20, and he commented on it via his Instagram account, saying: “A new massacre against children in the safe zone in Deir al-Balah. You openly granted them safety, then you killed them forever.”

The photographer attached other scenes from different angles of the same event, showing the children who were targeted in the massacre.

Al-Ghad Channel correspondent Mahmoud Al-Louh reported that the occupation used a drone to target a safe area near a market crowded with displaced people. In contrast, the Anadolu correspondent explained that the Deir al-Balah market is crowded with citizens, especially women, and children, and next to it is a bus stop to the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip.

Journalists Abdullah Al-Attar and Abdul Karim Abu Riash also documented in clips the moment several martyrs and wounded arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the center of Deir al-Balah, and they appeared lying on the ground covered in blood.

In a related context, the Government Media Office in Gaza reported in a press release yesterday, Tuesday, that the central market of Deir al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip, which is home to more than 5,000 Palestinians and displaced persons, was targeted, resulting in the martyrdom of 9 people and several injuries.

Continued targeting of areas classified by the occupation as “safe”

Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7 of last year, the occupation has announced “humanitarian” safe areas, which the displaced can go to to escape Israeli attacks and military operations, but the occupation did not hesitate to target them, causing massacres, which refutes the “safe zone” narrative, which is confirmed and documented by the large number of violations and massacres in places previously classified as safe.

On December 1, 2023, the Israeli occupation announced the division of the Gaza Strip into residential squares, each square having a specific number called “blocks.” According to the occupation, the division aims to neutralize civilians and keep them away from areas of military operations. In the first week of May, the occupation determined a map of the “safe” area, and accordingly, the residents began to flock to it and settle within its borders. During this time, they suffered from the difficulty of obtaining a place to set up their tents in an agricultural area that was not qualified for this number of displaced persons.

The safe zone in May after it was expanded after the Rafah operation

Later, the occupation began to gradually reduce the safe area until it reached only 11%, as UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna reported that the occupation reduced the safe area to 11% of the area of ​​the Gaza Strip, indicating that about 90% of the population of Gaza, or about two million people, were displaced at least once, and now live in an area of ​​less than 11% of the Strip that Israel considers “safe areas”.

This small area, about 35 square kilometers, is crowded with about 1.9 million Palestinians, causing severe overcrowding and a lack of basic services such as water and infrastructure.

Until now, the occupation continues to target humanitarian areas that include the displaced, for example, the massacre of Nabulsi roundabout, the Baptist roundabout, and the shelter centers, passing by the massacre of the Deir al-Balah central market and Mustafa Hamed School yesterday, Tuesday, all of which fall under the classification of “safe areas” and include thousands of civilians. Meanwhile, the “safe areas” have not been spared from continuous evacuation orders, as the occupation army issues evacuation orders at every moment in various areas that were divided to neutralize civilians from military operations.

An Israeli campaign questioning the suffering of Palestinians under the hashtag “Palliwood” 

Since the start of Operation “Noah’s Flood” and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2023, Israeli accounts have launched the hashtag “Pallywood“, a term consisting of two words: “Palestine” (Palestine) and Hollywood. Its users claim that Palestinians are acting out their injuries, fabricating their pain, and falsifying scenes of the wounded and martyrs. The “Tahaqaq” team has previously refuted a number of these claims and clarified their truth.

The Israeli war on Gaza continues

On the 320th day of the war on Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the death toll from the aggression has risen to 40,223 martyrs and 92,981, while several victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.

In addition to targeting journalists, women, children, educational and medical institutions.

The result
The Palestinian Observatory “Tahaqaq” followed up on the claims circulated within the “Ballywood” campaign about a photo of children victims of an Israeli massacre in Deir al-Balah, and it turned out that the claims are misleading. The photo is real and documents an Israeli massacre in a market crowded with displaced people and children, which was targeted by the occupation with a drone. Several journalists and media sources documented the incident, confirming that the photo and scenes were real and not fake.

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