East Palestine

Did protesters hang a "giant banner" at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City in June 2024 of Iran's leader "thanking" Americans for pro-Palestinian rallies, as footage on social media appears to show? No, that's not true: The banner appears to have been added through generative AI, as initial video recordings of a protest at the museum on May 31,…

Does a viral video show Israeli strikes in Rafah in May 2024? No, that's not true: The video was first posted on November 10, 2023. At the time, news organizations published reports about most fighting being concentrated on the opposite side of Gaza -- not in the south where Rafah is, but in the north. The claim appeared in a…

Does a photo portray a funeral procession in southern Gaza after an Israeli strike on Rafah in late May 2024? No, that's not true: The image predates this particular attack. It shows a different funeral that took place in central Gaza on December 25, 2023, much farther from the border between Gaza and Egypt in Rafah. The claim appeared in…

Does a viral video prove that Israel voted "for Palestine" during a United Nations Security Council meeting? No, that's not true: In the meeting the then-president of the U.N. Security Council read a list of the countries supporting a resolution on Gaza days after the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. He included Israel but he immediately corrected himself and…

Did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once say, "America is a golden calf and we will suck it dry," and then "destroy" it? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Netanyahu said this years before the Hamas-Israel war, or ever. The quotes are attributed to a transcript purportedly seen by an admitted misinformation peddler in 2015. But no…

Was the academic year in Gaza suspended because "all students" have died? No, that's not true: Available data suggests that most schoolchildren are still alive, even though the Hamas-Israel war has disrupted their education. While international organizations have drawn attention to the death toll among minors in the war, none state that Gaza's entire school-age population -- some 625,000 children,…

Was a 3-year-old Palestinian child detained in 2023 in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers as shown in a video? No, that's not true: This incident did happen in the town of Hebron in the West Bank; but it happened in 2018. As recorded in the video, the child's family succeeded in freeing the child from the soldier's grasp. The…

Does a video on Instagram show a Doctors Without Borders medic scooping up a rifle from a fallen gunman and running it up the street to another gunman who is still shooting? No, that's not true: The uniform worn by the person in the video carries the logo of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, a different organization. Higher-resolution video filmed…

Does a video show Israeli soldiers placing their national flag atop the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza? No, that's not true: Al Shifa buildings seen in other photos didn't appear to have any UN markings on the rooftops, while the building in versions of the flag-raising scene did have clear UN markings on its roof. A representative for the United…

Does a video on social media show a British law enforcement officer engulfed in flames during a rally related to the 2023 Hamas-Israel war? No, that's not true: The footage predates the conflict and the incident occurred far from the Middle East. It was recorded in Mexico in 2020. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly…