Image shows a Palestinian man in Gaza holding a plastic doll that he says is his dead grandson.
No, a Palestinian man holding his deceased grandson is not actually holding a ‘doll’
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A journalist who photographed this scene identified the infant as 5-month-old Muhammad Hani Al-Zahar, who had been killed.
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The Jerusalem Post published an article on Dec.1 headlined, "Al Jazeera posts blurred doll, claims it to be a dead Palestinian baby," before deleting the article and issuing a statement a day later that it shared an article with "faulty sourcing."
Editor’s note: This fact-check contains references and links to graphic images from the Israel-Hamas war.
In the image, a white-haired man cradles a blanket-wrapped infant in his arms while people look on from behind.
One TikTok post shared the image as part of a screenshot of an X post that claimed the infant was not real.
“Video from Gaza shows a Palestinian man showing a plastic baby doll toy that had been ‘killed’ in an air strike,” read the X post, made by British social media influencer Oli London. It appears that London later deleted his original post.
TikTok identified this video as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content. (Read more about PolitiFact’s partnership with TikTok.)
The photo does not depict a doll.
As part of his work documenting the Israel-Hamas war, photojournalist Ali Jadallah captured a series of images of the deceased infant boy Dec. 1 in Gaza; the baby was held by his mother and grandfather. The images were distributed by Getty Images with the caption: “Dead body of a 5-month-old Palestinian baby named Muhammad Hani Al-Zahar, is brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital by his mother Asmahan Attia Al Zahar and grandfather Attia Abu Amra after the Israeli airstrikes at the end of the humanitarian pause in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza.”
The Jerusalem Post spread the claim that the baby was a doll with an article it published Dec. 1 headlined, “Al Jazeera posts blurred doll, claims it to be a dead Palestinian baby.” The news site later deleted the article and issued a statement on X the following day saying the article had “faulty sourcing:” “The article in question did not meet our editorial standards and was thus removed,” the statement said. The Jerusalem Post did not immediately respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment.
Jadallah shared the photo on his Instagram story with the caption, “I shared the name of this baby and still Israeli media are claiming he is a doll. No. He is not a doll. He is a human that was killed by Israeli airstrikes.”
We rate the claim that this image shows a Palestinian man holding a doll that he says is his deceased grandson False.
Our Sources
TikTok post (archived), Dec. 5, 2023.
Getty Images, "Israeli attacks resume at Gaza after humanitarian pause," Dec. 1, 2023.
Jerusalem Post (archived), "Al Jazeera posts blurred doll, claims it to be a dead Palestinian baby," Dec. 1, 2023.
X post, Dec. 2, 2023.
X post, Dec. 2, 2023.
X post, Dec. 1, 2023.
Instagram post, Oct. 13, 2023.
AFP, "No evidence that a video features a doll rather than a dead child in Gaza," Oct. 18, 2023.
Science Direct, "Rigor Mortis," accessed Dec. 7, 2023.
