Fact Check-Footage of fake injury makeup in Gaza is from 2017 medical training exercise and not linked to the 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict

A video of people in Gaza applying fake blood and wound-like makeup is being falsely linked by social media users to the current upsurge in violence between Israel and Gaza. Users claim the video shows Palestinians faking injuries, when in fact, the footage is a simulation used by the French charity Doctors of the World in 2017 to train their doctors.

The text on top of the footage says “The new forgery of Gaza residents. They make fake blood, and paint wounds that are of course not real. All this in order to make the world feel sorry for them, to make Israel look bad”. (here , here , here). Captions on the posts include “Palestinians in Gaza daub fake blood and paint fake wounds on children to gain global sympathy and make Israel look evil”; “now they seemingly need to create fake “martyrs” in order to sway public opinion on their side”; and “Pallywood is REAL.” “Pallywood” is a term that mixes “Palestine” and “Hollywood” and is used to imply alleged media manipulation by Palestinians to win over public support in the conflict with Israel.

Weeks of violent clashes in East Jerusalem have ignited the heaviest fighting in years between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip (here , here).

As indicated by the watermark in the top left-hand corner of the video, saying “Gaza post”, the video has been edited together with footage from a Gaza Post report, seen here . The report, from Feb. 25, 2017, shows a group of young Palestinians who describe how they set up the first company in Gaza specializing in cinema make-up and special effects. TRT World published a video report in English (here) about the company, featuring interviews with the same two people as in the Gaza Post report and footage from what appears to be the same event ( here , here , here and here ) .

The TRT World commentary explains that the artists were creating fake injuries on actors taking part in a project by the French charity, Doctors of the World (www.medecinsdumonde.org/en). The blue Doctors of the World or Médecins du Monde logo can be seen on two people’s backs in the video here .

Margaux Lesage, communications officer for Doctors of the World, told Reuters via email that the fake wounds were being used for a training exercise to train doctors to triage patients in the case of an emergency, which means deciding in what order to treat patients depending on the degree of urgency of the wounds.

Heba Hamarnah, field coordinator for Doctors of the World in Gaza, told Reuters: “This simulation was done in 2017. It was concerning road accidents in Rafah and Khan Younis on the same day with more than 100 injuries. Since 2016 we contracted the same people to do the makeup for injuries to make the simulation more realistic.”

A banner clearly stating that it was a “simulation” can be seen in the TRT World report here .

VERDICT

False. The footage being circulated is from 2017 and the fake wounds were painted on by special effects makeup artists in Gaza for a medical training exercise by the French charity, Doctors of the World. It is not linked to the 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .