Misleading Linking of Two Videos from the West Bank to the Israeli War in Gaza

Foreign journalists and social media pages circulated two videos on social media, claiming to document Palestinians in Gaza as victims of the war. The first video shows an injured person receiving treatment, and it was falsely claimed to be the activist Saleh Al-Ja’fari, who was injured during the war in Gaza. The claim alleged that after celebrating rocket attacks on Israel, Saleh Al-Ja’fari is now pretending to be a victim of Israeli airstrikes.

As for the second video, it features two Palestinian women carrying weapons and was falsely linked to another video, claiming that it’s a staged performance by Gaza women portraying themselves as victims of the Israeli war in Gaza.

The Palestinian Observatory “Tahaqaq” investigated the origins of these circulated videos by researching public sources and found that both videos are old and relate to separate events in the West Bank. They were misleadingly connected to the Israeli war in Gaza.

The first video actually dates back to August 19, 2023, and it shows the injured individual Mohammed Jaber Zindiq, known as “Abu Shaqa,” from the Nour Shams refugee camp. It was published on the TikTok account “hamodahmdan1” as he received medical treatment after sustaining serious injuries from the Israeli occupation forces during their raid on the Nour Shams camp on July 24, 2023 This incident led to the amputation of his foot, and it has no connection to the journalist Saleh Al-Ja’fari.

Our team also contacted Saleh Al-Ja’fari, who confirmed that he wasn’t injured during the Israeli war in Gaza and is in good health, continuing his journalistic coverage of the war.

As for the second video, it actually shows the mothers of the martyrs Alaa Al-Faleh and Mohamed Hashash commemorating the 40th day of their passing in Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus in the West Bank. It has no relation to the war in Gaza, as confirmed by the journalists Mjahed Tabanja and Abdullah Al-Bahsh that the video was published on September 28, 2023, through “Filistin Post” platform on Telegram and “Quds News” Network.

Regarding the second part of the video that was merged to falsely depict the same women, it actually shows a woman from Gaza mourning and another woman after the loss of her daughter during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza, which was shared by the journalist Hani Abu Rizk on his Instagram account on October 9, 2023.