In early December 2023, a series of photographs of an elderly man holding a dead child in his arms went viral on social media. It was alleged that these were staged shots taken in the Gaza Strip, and that the Palestinian was actually holding a doll in his hands. We checked whether this interpretation is true.

On December 1, photographs appeared in many Israeli Telegram channels, including Russian-language ones, for example in “Israel⚡️Trash"(50,000 views at the time of writing this analysis" and "People for Israel | War"(25,000). Also these shots in your Telegram channel published blogger Rustem Adagamov. Usually the photos were accompanied by comments like “New video from Hamas Pictures: Gazans cry over a doll that 'died' during IDF attacks” or “Pallywood makes maudlin videos with cheap dolls pretending to be children.”

From the editor: We are forced to warn readers that this material shows photographs taken by photojournalists in the Gaza Strip. These are some pretty scary images. If you don't want to see them, please don't read the analysis.

Several photographs and videos of the same child have been published on social networks. In some photographs he is held in the arms of an elderly man, in others - a woman.

A photo with this man is also in the photo bank of the news agency Associated Press. It states that the photograph was taken on December 1, 2023, at the morgue of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, and depicts a Palestinian with the body of his murdered grandson.

Screenshot of a photo from the database Associated Press

In the photo agency database Getty Images Not only are there photographs from other angles, but additional information is also provided: the deceased child’s name is Mohammed Hani al-Zahar, his grandfather is Attiyah Abu Amra, and his mother is Asmahan Attiyah al-Zahar.

Based on footage from one of the videos, a fact-checking project Lead Stories determined that the filming was indeed taking place in Deir el-Balah, a city located in the southern part of the Palestinian enclave - a building with a distinctive dome can be seen in the background.

The largest photograph in which you can see the child’s face is in the already mentioned Getty Images photo bank.

If you look closely at the child’s eyes, dark spots are clearly visible on the whites. In forensic medicine this phenomenon is called tache noire (or Larche spots) and indicates the death of a person.

With open eyes near a corpse is happening drying, which after two to three hours becomes noticeable on the corneas and white membranes of the eyes. But these are indicators for room temperature: in dry weather the process occurs faster, the first signs of cloudiness appear within an hour.

Lead Stories draws attention to the fact that some photos the child's mouth is open wider than others. This detail may also indicate that we are talking about a real body and not a doll. In many cases after death muscle relaxation occurs, accompanied by the opening of the eyes and mouth, followed by rigor mortis.

Thus, a set of signs indicates that the photo appears to be the real body of a dead child who died in the Gaza Strip under unknown circumstances. It is possible that photographers were shown a mannequin made using high technology in compliance with all post-mortem characteristics, but this is extremely unlikely.

Cover photo: social networks