Behind the scenes video of Lebanese short film shared as Gazans ‘faking’ injuries

By: Mohammad Salman
November 13 2023

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Screenshots of the video being shared with the claim that Palestinians are faking injuries by applying make-up. (Source: Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts))

What is the claim?

A viral video is circulating on social media alongside claims it shows Palestinians faking injuries and footage of civilian evacuations to garner sympathy for Palestine in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. In the video, makeup artists can be seen applying makeup to a young girl and coordinating footage of an evacuation.

This video is being shared widely on social media, alongside claims that Palestinians have been fooling the world by making staged videos of injured children in Gaza. One such post on Facebook with the same video is captioned, “Hamas Deception! The Palestinians are fooling the international media and public opinion. DON’T FALL FOR IT. See for yourselves how they fake injuries and evacuate 'injured' civilians, all in front of the camera. Pallywood gets busted again.” Archives of similar posts with this video can be seen here, here, and here.

Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)  

“Pallywood,” a combination of the words "Palestine" and "Hollywood," is used by pro-Israel social media users accusing Palestinians of using crisis actors to make fake videos of injured people in Gaza to gain international media attention and sympathy for Palestine. 

Ofir Gendelman, the Israeli Prime Minister’s official spokesperson to the Arab world, shared the same video on X with a similar narrative. At the time of writing, this post has garnered over 15 million views, an archived version of which can be seen here.

However, this video is not from Palestine but is a behind-the-scenes video from a Lebanese short film. 

What did we find?

A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video showed the same visuals shared by a user named Omar Atab in a Facebook post on October 29, 2023. The title “The Reality” can be seen at the beginning of the video. Atab, who identifies as an actor from Lebanon, also shared the same video on his Instagram account. 

The voiceover, in English, describes the suffering of Palestinian children and the devastation that the war has brought upon them. At about 29 seconds into the video, it shows the same girl in the viral video with blood over her face. These visuals are almost identical to the visuals in the viral video. Credits at the end of the video read "Filmed by Mahmoud Razmi."

By looking up the name Mahmoud Razmi, we found an Instagram account with the same name, which shared the same video on October 28, 2023. According to the account’s bio, Mahmoud Razmi is a film director. We also found another Instagram post where Razmi shared the screenshots from Ofir Gendelman's X post containing the viral video and stated it was false. 

Screenshot of the Instagram Post shared by Mahmoud Razmi. (Source: Instagram/Mahmoud Razmi/Screenshot) 

Logically Facts has contacted Mahmoud Razmi and will update this fact check if we receive a response.

We found the same footage from the viral video on an Instagram account named Rami Jardali, whose bio states he is an actor. The caption of this video, shared on October 29, 2023, when translated to English, reads, “Behind the scenes... Reality.” The post tagged Mahmoud Razmi and Omar Atab.

Screenshot of the Instagram post by Rami Jardali with the viral video. (Source: Instagram/Rami Jardali/Screenshot)

While we could not independently find the location where this video was filmed, it is clear that visuals of the filming of a short film have been wrongly shared as crisis actors trying to attract international attention. 

The verdict

The viral video is a behind-the-scenes clip from a short film titled “The Reality,” filmed by Lebanese filmmaker Mahmoud Razmi. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.

(Translated by: Vivek. J)