No, this video of an alleged nurse in al-Shifa Hospital is not Israeli influencer Hannah Abutbul

By: Christian Haag
November 21 2023

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Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts

Context

In a video circulating on social media, a woman claiming to be a nurse at al-Shifa Hospital says that Hamas is taking over the hospital and withholding fuel and medicine from hospital staff and patients. While the woman in the video has not yet been identified, social media users falsely claim it is Israeli influencer Hannah Abutbul acting as a crisis actor. Examples of the claim can be seen on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

In fact

At the time of writing, the nurse in the video claiming to be a nurse at al-Shifa Hospital has not been identified. However, multiple credible sources have confirmed that it is not Israeli influencer Hannah Abutbul.

The claim has been publicly refuted by Abutbul herself and the Orthodox Jewish education organization Aish on their respective Instagram accounts. Abutbul works as a digital creator at Aish Latino, the Latin American branch of Aish. Abutbul writes specifically that the only similarities are the glasses but that the shape of the mouth and nose of the alleged nurse and her and different.

Journalists from BBC Verify and ABC News have contacted Abutbul and confirmed that it is not her in the video. Compiling analysis from several different fact-checkers, France24 has concluded that the video is staged.

Claims about actors or crisis actors are routinely being circulated in the Israel-Hamas conflict, including old behind-the-scenes movie footage.

Gaza's al-Shifa hospital has been raided by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) claiming a Hamas command center was operating in tunnels beneath the hospital. Skirmishes between Hamas and IDF ensued within the hospital and while the IDF claims to have found weapons and Hamas equipment, it has been criticized for lack of evidence about the hospital being a command center for the outfit. Personnel inside al-Shifa have told BBC that the hospital lacked power, oxygen, water, and medical supplies, leading to the death of premature babies in incubators and surgeries being carried out without anesthesia. 

Verdict

While the identity of the alleged nurse at al-Shifa Hospital has not been identified, multiple sources have confirmed that it is not Israeli influencer Hannah Abutbul. We have, therefore, marked the claim as false.