Palestinians are again accused of acting: was the boy carrying flour really shot?

Carrying a bag of flour

This video was also shared by a Facebook user from Lithuania.

“Arabs are creating ‘evidence’ that the Israeli army is simply ‘shooting hungry children’,” she mocked on August 28 next to the so-called reel.

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The clip was posted on an account with 326 thousand followers, where, as explained in Hebrew in the description, what leads Israel forward is praised.

“A child from Gaza, passionately striving for a place in ‘Pallywood’,” is sarcastically commented here and viewers are invited to assess the “viewership”.

The half-minute clip shows a child walking through the ruins of some building with a large and apparently heavy white bag on his right shoulder. Carefully placing his feet, the boy keeps looking around as gunshots echo nearby. At one moment he suddenly turns, the bag bumps to the ground, and the child quietly cries out and clutches his chest with his left hand.

Then he falls onto the bag (from the white cloud rising around, it can be guessed that there was flour inside) and groaning, rolls onto his side.

What is really captured is hard to understand from the half-minute clip. It should be assumed that the boy was shot, although no blood is visible. On the other hand, no one from the filming crew runs to him, as sometimes happens in staged videos.

Searching online for more information using the freeze frame mostly returns similar posts on various social networks – allegedly Palestinians are acting again. Comments expressing sympathy for Gaza residents are few, and there are no media reports about such clearly filmed injury or killing of a minor, although children who become victims constantly receive journalists’ attention.

Indicated as staged

What is really captured in the clip is revealed by a short phrase in Arabic visible above the boy for a few seconds (from the 0.06 second timestamp).

Its meaning can be found using the automatic translation program “Google Translator.” The screen says: “Staging reflecting the situation in Gaza.”

So the situation is indeed staged, but it is obvious that the authors do not try to present it as a tragedy that happened in Gaza; on the contrary, they indicate that the actor is visible. Overall, it is not even clear whether this is a clip prepared for publication or just “raw” material that, for example, will be edited with similar shots, supplemented with visual effects, and commented on.

However, internet users actively explain that the video is an attempt to deceive. Even more – this staged clip is presented as proof that other war horrors are also simulated.

Also read: What the girls on the ruins were really doing – acting as victims or sending a message to the West?

The portal 15min has already written about a similar attempt to show the horrors of the war in Gaza. In 2023, photos were circulated showing four clearly alive but appearing dead girls and young women. The shots were accompanied by similar comments – that injuries and deaths in Gaza are faked.

The heroines of the photos were indeed acting, but they did not hide it. They were not presented as dead Palestinians; on the contrary, the photos themselves stated that the scene was staged to show the West what is happening in the Gaza Strip.

Children died without food

Although staged, the scene from the clip reflects real events. Civilians in the Gaza Strip, including children, have repeatedly been shot at, injured, or even killed by Israeli military forces while trying to obtain basic food supplies, such as bags of flour, at aid distribution points.

This situation arose due to a huge humanitarian crisis in the region and the dangers lurking in places where aid can be obtained.

At the end of August 2025, the main global food crisis agency IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) declared that the city of Gaza was gripped by famine. The decision was made after many months of warnings from aid organizations that Israeli-imposed restrictions on food and other aid supplies and the military operation were causing famine among Palestinian civilians, especially children.

“The worst possible scenario is unfolding in the Gaza Strip – famine,” UN-supported food security experts stated at the end of July last year, urging action as the relentless conflict, mass displacement, and near-total collapse of essential services in the war-torn enclave continue.

At that time, evidence was mounting that “widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease” were causing an increasing number of deaths due to famine. This is one of the famine indicators. The other two thresholds – drastically reduced food consumption and acutely deteriorated nutrition – had already been crossed.

According to IPC data, one in three people went without food for entire days. Hospitals were overcrowded – since April last year, more than 20,000 children were treated for acute malnutrition. In the two weeks before this statement, at least 16 children under five years old died from causes related to famine.

This warning was issued after an IPC analysis in May 2025, which predicted that by September all residents would face catastrophic levels of food shortage. But the threat of famine had been discussed earlier as well.

The situation was complicated by limited humanitarian aid delivery capabilities, and aid convoys were often blocked or looted. As a result, not only adults but also children were forced to travel long distances in dangerous areas to get food. International organizations have recorded multiple shootings of people gathered at food distribution points.

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Famine formally ended

However, there were other cases. Last summer, a story told by a representative of the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF), whose activities were approved by Israel but immediately criticized for politicizing and duplicating aid distribution, made headlines.

US military veteran Anthony Aguilar told about a boy Amir who barefoot walked 12 km a few months earlier to get some food and was immediately killed by a bullet. A few months later, GHF staff themselves found out that 9-year-old Abdulrahim – the real child from the photos circulating in the media and social networks – was actually alive. Moreover, it turned out that the American had invented more stories.

Despite such cases and the fact that famine ended, international organizations continue to condemn the number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and the huge danger related to securing basic food rations.

On October 22 last year, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must ensure sufficient food for the region’s residents. The IPC report published in December stated that famine was over as food supply improved. However, it also warned that the situation remains “very fragile.”

According to data from January this year, Gaza residents for the first time since the start of the war received enough humanitarian aid to meet basic food needs.

Still, in July, IPC reported that more than 1.2 million people (59% of Gaza’s population) still face food insecurity. Of these, 212 thousand live in critical conditions, the food supply crisis has not eased, and experts say a new famine could occur.

“Acting” since the start of the war

The narrative about alleged Palestinian acting is one of the most popular narratives in the propaganda of this war. Soon after October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and Israel immediately responded with force, videos and articles appeared online claiming that injuries or deaths experienced by Palestinians were staged.

Also read: Hamas vs. Israel: what are the causes of the decades-long simmering conflict?

Explanations that Palestinians film allegedly injured or dead people for propaganda purposes appeared less than a week after the war began. The term to describe this “acting” was quickly created – “Pallywood” (combining Palestine and Hollywood). Special accounts even appeared on social networks.

Also read: During the war in Gaza Strip, a new term “Pallywood” emerged: are Palestinians really acting?

Over three years, the portal 15min described more than one case of alleged acting and the resulting fabrications.

Also read: Another war – another wave of “staged killings”: a frame from an old film is shown

Also read: Not believing Palestinian tears: explaining that relatives cried not for a dead baby but a doll

Also read: Did Palestinians really stage injuries and even film how they do it?

Also read: Images of killed babies are unbearable: internet users explain they are fabricated

Also read: Searches for acting in Gaza continue: what was the young actress really doing in front of the cameras?

Also read: Is the Palestinian woman really caressing not dead but sleeping babies or dolls?

Also read: Old lie adapted for a new war: no, this girl did not act in Gaza or Syria

Also read: Israeli and Hamas war “acting” continues: this time a dead 4-year-old was called a doll

15min verdict: lacking context. The situation in the video was indeed staged, but this is indicated. It is meant to show the horrors of the war in Gaza, not to present an allegedly shot child as a real victim.

Publication prepared by 15min in cooperation with Meta, aiming to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.

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