Image of boy dragging a child’s body not linked to ongoing Israel-Hamas war

Over the past month and a half, social media has been flooded with claims related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Alt News has constantly been monitoring and fact-checking them. The latest of these is an image that depicts a child dragging the body of another child on the road. It is claimed that these are Palestinian siblings who had stepped out to fetch water when Israeli soldiers allegedly opened fire on the girl, and the boy was carrying his sister’s lifeless body. An X (Twitter) account named ‘War Report’ tweeted this picture with a similar claim. (Archived link)

#Palestinian siblings went to fetch water but were killed by #Israeli soldiers. The younger brother dragged his sister’s body home.
For two years, #Russia and #Ukraine accused each other of being Nazis, until Israel had to show them what the true Nazis were.🤔#IsraeliTerrorism pic.twitter.com/QNtGiPF8st

— War Reports (@cheguwera) November 14, 2023

X handle ‘@thinking_panda’ also tweeted this picture with a similar claim, which garnered more than 13,000 views. (Archived link)

A pair of Palestinian siblings went to fetch water but were killed by Israeli soldiers. The younger brother dragged his sister’s body home.👇
For two years, Russia and Ukraine accused each other of being Nazis, until Israel had to show them what the true Nazis were.🤔 pic.twitter.com/85E3KQ0qHy

— ShanghaiPanda (@thinking_panda) November 14, 2023

This picture is widespread with the same claim on X (i.e. Twitter) and Facebook.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Fact Check

Alt News performed a reverse image search of the viral picture using Yandex, which led us to a report by a portal called The Islamic Information dated August 20, 2020. The article also carries the viral picture. According to the report, Houthi snipers shot a nine-year-old girl in the head when she went out to fetch water in a city named Taiz in southwestern Yemen. Following this incident, the girl’s brother dragged her body away.

Middle East Monitor also covered the incident in a report dated August 18, 2020. According to the article, a girl named Ruwaida Saleh was shot by a Houthi sniper in Taiz city when she went out to fetch water. The article also contains a tweet from a handle called ‘@Alhadath_Ymn’ which often tweets on incidents in Yemen. This tweet, dated August 17, 2020, contains two photographs of the incident along with text that states that a child was seen dragging an injured girl after she had been shot by a Houthi sniper.

صورة | رغم استمرار المخاطر المحدقة.. طفل غامر بحياته لإنقاذ وسحب طفلة مصابة برصاصة قناص ميليشيات الحوثي شرقي مدينة #تعز#الحدث_اليمني pic.twitter.com/zoIrbVajGH

— الحدث اليمني (@Alhadath_Ymn) August 17, 2020

To sum it up, this viral picture is not related to the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas. This picture was taken during an incident of firing on a girl by a Houthi sniper in Taiz, Yemen, in 2020.