Palestinian children locked in cages? Warning, these are old images

Issued on: 26/12/2023 – 15:58

4 min

If you only have a minute

• An X account shared a photo and video they claimed showed Palestinian children being detained by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), something they said is happening all the time. 

• However, these photos don’t actually show events in Gaza over the past weeks. They are old and taken out of context. 

• The video was first published in 2017 by the Israeli NGO B’Tselem. It shows minors arrested by the IDF in Hebron in the West Bank after they were allegedly caught throwing stones. 

• The photo was taken by a photographer with the European photojournalism agency EPA back in 2010. The original photo shows Palestinian children in Hebron waiting to receive food aid. 

The fact-check, in detail

A post on X, which garnered thousands of views and was picked up by many other accounts, features a video of the IDF arresting minors as well as a photo of what looks like young children behind bars. “Hundreds of Palestinian children are constantly arrested and thrown in cages,” the post claims along with the hashtag “FreePalestine”.

The images have been widely circulated to denounce the way that Israeli soldiers have been treating Palestinian children since the beginning of the Israeli offensive in Gaza. However, these photos have been taken out of their initial context. 

The photo shows Palestinian children in an Israeli prison. However, in reality, the children in the photo (whose ages are unknown) are waiting for food at a soup kitchen in Hebron in the West Bank.

Our team carried out a reverse image search (click here to see how). We found the original photo and realised that the version currently circulating online has been cropped, making it look like the children are behind bars in a prison. In reality, the photograph was taken on August 18, 2020 by photographer Abed Al Hashlamoun from the European photojournalism agency EPA. Al Hashlamoun said that the food was handed out by the “Waqf Islamic Authority” on Ramadan. 

Since then, this image has often been used to illustrate misinformation online. It began circulating along with the caption: “Palestinian children in an Israeli prison.”

In the video, you can see Israeli soldiers arresting a group of adolescents, some of whom seem to be minors, and putting them in a cell. The people who shared this video in December have used it to denounce the IDF. However, they don’t clarify that the video was filmed in 2017, which is clear when you carry out a reverse image search. 

The video was published in 2017 by the Israeli NGO B’Tselem, which got the video from two Hebron residents who witnessed the scene. The NGO said the video showed the arrest of “18 young men” who had thrown stones at Israeli soldiers in Hebron, in the West Bank, after afternoon prayers. After the clashes with the Israeli soldiers, the young men, who according to B’Tselem “were mostly under the age of 18”, were taken to a military base where they were interrogated and kept in detention until that evening.

Even if the X users who shared this photo and video took the images out of context, Palestinian children are often victims of the conflict in the West Bank and Gaza. More than 8,000 children have been killed since the Israeli offensive began on October 7 of last year and many more have been injured, according to the press office of the Hamas government. Children represent 40% of the deaths in Gaza, according to a report by UNICEF. The organisation added that, in the West Bank, “at least 71 children were killed and a number of others were forced to leave their homes.”