Fact Check: No, This Photo Doesn't Show Israeli Settlers Trying To 'Tear Palestinian Child Apart'

Nick Hardinges
·3 min read
Getty Images
Getty Images

Claim:

A photo being shared online in late June 2024 authentically showed Israeli settlers trying to tear a Palestinian child apart.

Rating:

Rating: Miscaptioned
Rating: Miscaptioned

The protracted, often bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict exploded into a hot war on Oct. 7, 2023, when the militant Palestinian group Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel and Israel retaliated by bombarding the Gaza Strip. More than 20,000 people, the vast majority of them Palestinians, were reportedly killed during the first two months of the war alone. The violence is driven by mutual hostilities and territorial ambitions dating back more than a century. The internet has become an unofficial front in that war and is rife with misinformation, which Snopes is dedicated to countering with facts and context. You can help. Read the latest fact checks. Submit questionable claims. Become a Snopes Member to support our work. We welcome your participation and feedback.


On June 26, 2024, an X user posted a photo of a group of men holding someone by all their limbs and claimed it showed Israelis attempting to rip apart a Palestinian child (archived here).

"Settler savages try to tear a Palestinian child apart in the occupied West Bank," the X user wrote.

(@Resist_85 / X)

Similar claims appeared elsewhere on X in June 2024 and in numerous Facebook posts, where one person asked: "How do you justify that?"

Together, the posts had amassed more than 970,000 interactions at the time of this writing.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10161313058254748&set=a.416400434747

However, the image was published by Getty on Sept. 13, 2009, which reported it showed Israeli settlers trying to pull a fellow settler who was being dragged away by border police:

Israeli settlers try to pull a fellow settler as he is dragged away by border policemen during clashes at the entrance to the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, west of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, after Israeli police tried to confiscate a truck containing material to build a new house on September 13, 2009.

Zooming in on the picture showed the person being pulled was likely a man, rather than a child, due to the hair on his face and stomach, which is why we have rated this claim and photo as "Miscaptioned."

Israeli settlers try to pull a fellow settler away from border police during clashes at Havat Gilad on Sept. 13, 2009. (Getty Images)

Getty published multiple images from the clash in September 2009.

Sources:

'Israeli Border Policemen Carry Away an Israeli Settler during Clashes...' Getty Images, 13 Sept. 2009, https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/israeli-border-policemen-carry-away-an-israeli-settler-news-photo/90700105.

'Israeli Settlers Try to Pull a Fellow Settler as He Is Dragged Away...' Getty Images, 13 Sept. 2009, https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/israeli-settlers-try-to-pull-a-fellow-settler-as-he-is-news-photo/90700136.

'Jewish Settlers Clash with Israeli Border Policemen near the Illegal...' Getty Images, 5 May 2010, https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/jewish-settlers-clash-with-israeli-border-policemen-near-news-photo/98857540.

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