Video of a child from Gaza is falsely linked to unrest in Bangladesh

The video circulated on the Internet after India’s Hindu nationalist government raised the alarm over reports of attacks on the Hindu minority in Bangladesh immediately after the overthrow of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (archived link).

Hasina fled to India by helicopter on August 5 after weeks of student protests forced her to resign, ending her 15-year iron-fisted rule.

The Hindus in predominantly Muslim Bangladesh are considered a loyal support base of Hasina’s Awami League party.

Gaza footage

However, the video shows a child caught in an Israeli attack in Gaza.

In a video, the logo of the Arab news channel Al Jazeera Mubasher can be seen at the top left.

Al Jazeera Mubasher posted the video on Instagram on July 14, 2024, in a post that read in Arabic: “Fear and panic of a child sitting alone after an Israeli airstrike targeted a shelter for displaced people at the UNRWA-affiliated Abu Araban school in Nuseirat camp” (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in fake posts (left) and the video posted by Al Jazeera Mubasher (right):

An attack on a school housing displaced people left 15 people dead. The Israeli military said it was targeting “terrorists” (archived link).

The attack on the UN-run Abu Araban compound in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza was the fifth on a school converted into a shelter in eight days, continuing Israel’s offensive against Palestinian Hamas militias that sparked the war with their attack on Israel on October 7.

Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel that day killed 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures.

The militants also took 251 hostages, 103 of whom are still in Gaza. According to the Israeli military, 33 of them are dead.

According to the Ministry of Health, more than 40,530 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Gaza as a result of Israel’s military retaliation campaign.

US broadcaster CBS News published a similar video of the child on July 20, 2024, attributed to Salama Nabil Younis (archived link).

The Gaza-based photographer and video producer shared the video on Instagram on the day of the attack.

AFP has already verified false information about the unrest in Bangladesh.