Old Video Falsely Shared as ‘Palestinians Faking Deaths’ Amid Israel-Hamas War

The video has been on the internet since August 2023 and predates the current Israel-Hamas conflict.

A video showing a man, who is wrapped in a white cloth and is lying on the floor with other, similarly covered people, is being shared on social media, where users are implying that it shows Palestinians who are ‘faking death’ amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

(Archives of more claims on social media can be seen here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No. The video has been on the internet since 19 August, predating the war, when it was shared with Malay text, indicating that the video may be from Malaysia.

How did we find out?: Using InVID, a video verification tool, we divided the viral video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search.

• This led us to an Instagram post with a Malay caption, which had the same video and had been shared on 19 August.

• We came across another post with the same video, which was shared more recently. This post credited the video to a TikTok account with the username ‘@metjetak17’.

• A comment under this video called out the misinformation, mentioning that it showed an instance of a mosque teaching people how to wash and wrap dead bodies.

• Using a VPN to access TikTok (as the platform is banned in India), we looked for the account on it.

• We found that the viral video was published on TikTok on 19 August with hashtags related to Malaysia.

• This account shared several posts in Malay, indicating that the video was possibly from Malaysia.

• Using relevant keywords in Malay, we looked for more information about Malaysian mosques offering funeral courses.

• We came across several videos on YouTube where people were instructing other people on the process which should be followed after a person’s demise.

• They also showed people practising how to wrap a dead body with  live people, like in the viral video.

• Though we were unable to independently verify the context or the location of the viral video, we can confirm that the video has no connection to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Conclusion: The video has been online since August and is possibly from Malaysia. It does not show Palestinian faking deaths.

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