A scene from a Palestinian short film 'Empty Place' is being shared on social media with a false claim that it shows Palestinians staging a scene using child actors to show Israeli soldiers killing children.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a large-scale assault on Israeli forces as a part of their 'Al-Aqsa Storm' operation. The Islamist militant group breached a fortified border fence, capturing both Israeli soldiers and civilians. The militant group rationalised these actions as a response to the desecration of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the threat posed by Israeli settlers in the region.
Around 900 people have been killed in Israel, which includes 260 people killed by Hamas gunmen during a music festival near the Gaza strip on the Israeli controlled side. Israel initiated retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza, resulting in the killing of nearly 700 people on the Palestinian side. Israel has called for a "complete siege" of Gaza blocking water, food, electricity, fuel and other essential supplies to the 41-km strip.
In the viral video a film crew can be seen standing with a boy lying on his back with his leg twisted behind him and blood on the ground. The video is being shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) with the caption, "Pallywood at its best. The Palestinians are faking scenes where a child is shot by Israeli soldiers. I wish they spent all these resources to promote peace rather than propaganda."
The same video is being shared by several right-wing Indian X users.
In a quote tweet to Indian journalist Rana Ayyub, the X handle Ashtalakshmi (@Ashtalakshmi8) posted the video with the caption, "Is Rana writing about this Hamas concocting videos! Kids have to fake their own death."
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The same video is also being shared with another false claim by Pro-Palestinian accounts with the claim that it shows Israelis staging a video to show Hamas killing children.
The video was posted on X by the handle @TheMuslim786 with the caption, "See how Israelis are making fake videos saying that Palestine Freedom Fighters killed children. #FreePalestine #IStandWithPalestine #FreePalastine"
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from a Palestinian short film 'Empty Place' which is based on the story of imprisoned Palestinian Ahmed Manasra.
A Tik Tok user name (@Mohamad awawdeh) is visible on the video. We found that the account had posted the video in 2022 with an Arabic caption that translated to, "Filming a short film about the story of the child prisoner Ahmed Manasra"
On November 10, 2015, then 13-year-old Palestinian Ahmed Manasra and his 15-year-old cousin were arrested for a stabbing incident near the Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. His cousin was shot dead by Israeli police after he had critically wounded a 13-year-old Israeli boy who was leaving a candy store and stabbed an Israeli man. Ahmed was run over by a car, beaten and jeered by Israeli passersby. Manasra was arrested and has been in jail since then with civil right groups appealing for him to be released stating that court records state that he did not stab anyone.
We also found the short film on Manasra which was uploaded on YouTube on April 14, 2022 with the title, "Empty place Film". At the 1.23 minutes timestamp, we can see the same scene that is being shot by the movie crew with the same boy in the viral video.
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