The official Israeli government account has deleted a post by X promoting a conspiracy that Palestinian crisis activists are faking deaths amid Israel’s war with Hamas.
The war, which began on October 7 in the wake of brutal Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians, has left a huge death toll on both sides.
At least 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, and about 200 remain held as hostages in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says more than 8,000 people have been killed. almost half One of them were children.
President Joe Biden said last Wednesday that he had “no idea whether the Palestinians are telling the truth about the number of casualties” and that “the Palestinians have no confidence in the number of casualties.” , some critics have questioned the authenticity of the casualty numbers from Gaza. using. “
The United Nations and several humanitarian organizations believe that the Ministry of Health’s figures are: Generally accurate Historically trusted.
A conspiracy theory frequently cited by those who question the veracity of the death toll is the baseless belief that Palestinians are hiring crisis managers to play dead.
One such conspiracy theory was promoted by Israeli state officials last week and removed on Wednesday.
“Reminder: Gaza Ministry of Health = Hamas,” Israel wrote in the first post. “The body cannot move the head.”
Misinformation was widespread during the war.
Video purportedly showing body bags in motion has been shared repeatedly since the outbreak of the war. The body bag clip was filmed in Egypt in 2013.
another image The photo of the alleged Crisis actor is a child’s Halloween costume, taken at least a year ago.
Another example of misinformation is a video of a hijab-wearing woman applying fake blood and makeup to people to make them appear seriously injured. The video is not from the current conflict, but can be traced back to a 2017 news report about Gaza’s film industry, according to the report. Associated Press.
Wednesday’s deletion by Israel’s X account is not the first time the government has promoted and then retracted posts promoting conspiracy theories.
Mashable reporter Matt Binder pointed out that in late October, Israel deleted a post that read, “The devil is working hard, but Gaza’s film industry is working harder.”
Binder said the post implied that a Palestinian man was pretending to be in the hospital, but the image actually showed a different person.
“On the left is Saleh Al-Jafarawi. He was found posting footage from Gaza on Instagram as Saleh Al-Jafarawi. The person hospitalized is 16-year-old Mohamed Zendiq,” the binder said. Mr. I have written. “This footage was posted on TikTok in August, when he was hospitalized after losing a leg during an IDF raid in the West Bank.”
Israel also deleted a post after people objected to its genocidal tone.
*First published: November 2, 2023 12:33pm CDT
Katherine Huggins
Katherine Huggins is a New York-based journalist and freelance contributor to the Daily Dot’s Technology and Politics section. She helped cover the United Nations for the Japanese newspaper Mainichi, and previously for Market Watch, where she reported on the 2022 midterm elections. Her work has appeared in USA Today, Forbes, OpenSecrets, and more.
