FACT CHECK: Israeli claim of dead body of Gazan using mobile phone is from 2022 Halloween party in Thailand
- 31 Oct 2023
Gulf Today Report
A picture appeared on social media sites showing a child disguised as a corpse in Gaza using a mobile phone, indicating that the death toll issued by health authorities is not correct.
The statement was even highlighted by US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, that he doubts the death toll in Gaza.
The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 8,525.
In the occupied West Bank, more than 122 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.
However, evidence showed that the photo actually dates back to October 2022 during a Halloween costume contest in Thailand.
In the photo, a child appears to be removing his hands from a shroud and using a mobile phone. The accompanying caption reads, “A corpse in Gaza sends a message from the phone... Hamas’ lies and exaggeration of death tolls.”
The photo received hundreds of thousands of views on the page of Israeli journalist Eddie Cohen, who had previously published several misleading photos and videos on the X website, in addition to hundreds of posts on pages in other languages.
The circulation of this image comes in light of the US administration’s doubts about the announced death toll in Gaza during the war launched by Israel against Hamas, and the intense and ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
The American President, who visited Israel last week to express his solidarity with Washington's most prominent allies in the region, confirmed on Wednesday that he "does not trust" the Palestinian outcome.
He told reporters at the White House: “I have no idea (whether) the Palestinians are telling the truth about the number of people being killed. It is certain that innocent people lost their lives, but this is the price of waging war,” continuing, “But I do not trust the number that the Palestinians use.”
In response to Biden, the Hamas Ministry of Health published, on Thursday, a detailed report listing the names of more than seven thousand Palestinians who are “victims of the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.”
The report issued by the Ministry of Health in the sector controlled by the movement was 212 pages long, and listed the names of 6,747 people, along with their age, gender, and identification number, in addition to 281 dead of unknown identity.
However, the death toll rose in the days that followed the announcement. The number of victims reached 8,005 people, including 3,342 children.
The report covers the period beginning on October 7, the date of the unprecedented attack launched by the movement on the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip, which led to the deaths of 1,400, according to the authorities.
Since then, Israel has carried out intense air and artillery bombardment on the Gaza Strip, and continues to prepare for a possible ground operation.
Research and verification of the circulating image revealed that it has nothing to do with all of this, and a search for it on Google led to the same image published in October 2022, accompanied by other images showing what appear to be costumes on a Thai news page.
The caption accompanying the photos stated that they belonged to two brothers who won a costume competition, during the celebration of Halloween in a mall in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand.
These photos appear with a watermark in the name of the children’s mother, Surattana Sawadkit, were posted on her personal account on October 29, 2022.
It also published other video clips of the two children participating in the masquerade competition at the Central Plaza mall in Thailand.
Other photos of them can also be found in a group of photos published by the Central Korat store, which organized the competition, on its Facebook page.
These fashions attracted the attention of several Thai media outlets at the time.