×
Thursday, December 26, 2024

Graphic video from Sweden falsely shared as 'Israeli police beating Palestinian child' - AFP Factcheck

Copyright AFP 2017-2024. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.

Videos shared with false claims continued to flood social media as the war in Gaza entered its second year, triggered by Hamas' unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack to which Israel retaliated with a bloody offensive in the Palestinian territory. Recent posts condemning Israel were repeatedly shared worldwide alongside a graphic video and a false claim that it shows an Israeli police officer strangling a Palestinian child. In fact, the circulating clip predates the Israel-Hamas War and shows an incident in Sweden in 2015.

Warning: graphic video

"An Israeli police officer sat on the body of a Palestinian child and strangled him during protests against (sic) the US embassy in Jerusalem on Saturday. The child suffocated and eventually died," read part of the Thai-language caption to the video shared on Facebook on November 11, 2024.

It shows a man in a fluorescent yellow vest pressing a boy's face to the ground.

The boy is shown lifting his index finger and reciting the Islamic Shahada creed professing belief in Allah and the acceptance of the Prophet Mohammed as God's messenger.

Content warning

Show

The post surfaced as the war in Gaza raged on, triggered by Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures (archived link).

The militants also took 251 hostages into...



Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiWEFVX3lxTE9STldOR3hxWVF3UkFWaTdPekxk...