A video of an injured man in Gaza taking off the bandage wrapped around his head to reassure his mother that he will be fine is viral online with a false claim that he is faking his injuries by saying "it's all for the camera".
BOOM found that the claims are false and the video is being shared with a mistranslated caption to make the false claim.
The Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7 after the latter launched an unprecedented attack into Israel from Gaza, and also faced retaliatory strikes that have been ongoing for more than 5 weeks now. More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them children, following this attack. On the Israeli side, about 1,200 people have been killed, revised downward from the 1400 stated earlier, according to Reuters and NPR. Amid this, one false narrative that has been making the rounds on social media includes false claims about Palestinians staging their injuries in order to inflate the death toll in Gaza and gain international support. BOOM has debunked several such misleading and false claims. Read our stories here and here.
The viral video showing a man on a hospital bed with his mother by his side is viral online with the caption, ""Mom everything is fine it's just for the camera"" to suggest that he is staging his injuries.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Right-wing verified X account Megh Updates also shared the video with a similar caption. BOOM has previously debunked several false and misleading claims shared by this Indian account. Read here.
The video is also circulating on Facebook with the same caption.
Click here to view the post.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the video shows the man being admitted to Nasser Medical Centre in Khan Younis located in the Gaza strip. In the video, he is telling his mother that he was going to be all right, in order to not worry her.
We found that Mohmmed Awad, a journalist from Gaza who has been covering the conflict from the ground shared the video on his Instagram story on November 12.
We also found that a story posted before this one showing the man being brought into the hospital on a stretcher. The video also showed his mother in the frame.
Below is a screen-recording of Awad's Instagram stories:
We also geolocated the video and found that the man was being admitted to the Nasser Medical Centre in Khan Younis, located in the Gaza strip.
BOOM also reached out to Mohmeed Awad via Instagram who confirmed that he shot the video at Nasser Medical Centre in Khan Younis. He also added, "This young man was injured by shrapnel in the head, but in order to reassure his mother, he removed the medical cover."
BOOM spoke to Riham Abu Aita, founder of Palestinian fact-checking outlet Kashif who said, "The mother is worried about her son and they are telling her that he is okay and his injury is not serious." She also provided a detailed translation of the people's conversation which can be seen below:
Man in white clothes: "Nothing serious, look he is okay."
Man in black t-shirt: "Don't be afraid he is okay."
Her son: "It's nothing, I'm okay."
