The images are nearly unbearable: photos and videos showing acts of extreme violence committed in cold blood. Many of these videos are readily accessible on X, formerly known as Twitter, and have yet to be removed or censored. They purport to show atrocities being committed during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Germany, the EU, the United States and other governments.

Because of the disturbing violence on display, this article intentionally contains only screenshots and archived forms of the videos.

Claim: A user from the United Arab Emirates with more than half a million followers shared a  video (warning: extreme, graphic violence) on X that appears to show the execution of at least two people. The user calls Israelis "sadistic barbarians" who "only bomb or stab in the back" and goes on to accuse Israel of engaging in ethnic cleansing in the current conflict with Hamas, using the video as evidence. Posts containing the same video and similar claims can be found in Persian and Turkish.

DW fact check: False. 

The footage was not from the Gaza Strip, nor was it taken recently. No Israeli soldiers were involved. A reverse image search, for example, using Google Lens or TinEye, confirms that the video is over 10 years old and originated in Syria.

Reverse image searches of individual scenes from the video led to identical videos published in 2013. Accordingly, the video in the UAE user's social media post does not depict scenes from Gaza but rather atrocities from the Syrian conflict. According to media reports, the video is said to show the execution of civilians by the Shabiha militia, a group loyal to the regime of Syrian leader Bashar Assad that gained notoriety for its extreme brutality in the Syrian war.

Images and videos taken out of context, intentionally or unintentionally, and conveying misinformation are encountered in all major conflicts and recycled to generate a certain mood and discredit opponents.

"For people who are not familiar with the location, these images can appear real," said Pia Lamberty, social psychologist and director of the CEMAS Institute, a German think tank that consults on the effects of disinformation and conspiracy theories. "These images and videos have an impact because they evoke something in us. Especially in emotionally loaded situations, we tend to scrutinize facts less than usual."

Syrian war images misrepresented as Israeli crimes

In the current war, images and videos claiming to depict atrocities by the Israeli military are frequently shared on social media. However, many of these visuals stem from the Syrian conflict, not the Gaza Strip. For instance, a widely circulated video across various platforms alleges war crimes by Israeli forces in Gaza. AfricaCheck, a non-profit fact-checking organization, examined the footage and confirmed it was recorded in Syria in 2013. Rather than Israeli soldiers, it actually shows militias loyal to Assad executing civilians in Damascus.

Some videos that claim to depict Israeli military bombardments are not authentic. A user on X posted a video claiming the Israeli army was bombing the Al-Sadaqa Turkish-Palestinian Hospital in Gaza. However, a fact-check by Mimikama, an Austria-based fact-checking platform, confirmed that the video shows an attack on a hospital in the Syrian city of Aleppo in 2016.

Scenes of children suffering in Syria's civil war have also served as material for false information about the current conflict. Another user on X shared a video claiming to show a boy in Gaza "mourning his sisters." The video, however, also originated in Syria in 2014, as verified by the fact-checking team of India Today news magazine.

Rejecting facts as emotions take center stage

Such out-of-context videos do not substantiate claims of Israeli war crimes or deliberate Israeli attacks on the civilian population in Gaza. However, this does not mean Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip does not cause immense suffering to residents of the Palestinian enclave. The United Nations, citing the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, reported over 19,000 casualties as of December 18. The count does not differentiate between militant and civilian deaths, but in the past, the UN and nongovernmental organizations have widely reported the Health Ministry's casualty counts to be accurate.

Both sides of the conflict have engaged in disseminating misinformation. False claims about Palestinians and events in the Gaza Strip are repeatedly circulated online, reaching millions of users. For instance, a post widely shared on X claimed that a video proved Hamas had fired rockets at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, but a DW fact-check demonstrated that the video did not prove the claim.

Additionally, fake videos generated by artificial intelligence are routinely spread by pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian social media accounts.

Misinformation about the conflict in Gaza fuels hatred on both sides and can have devastating consequences, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres  warned: "Polarization and dehumanization are being fueled by a tsunami of disinformation. We must stand up to the forces of antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and all forms of hate."

Lamberty said the large-scale distribution of older images and videos extracted from different contexts reflected a strategic approach.

"The intention is to undermine facts by provoking intense emotions," she said. "Even when an image turns out to be untrue, it still creates the impression that these [atrocities] occur so frequently that it somehow must be true," she added. "In such situations, facts can almost seem amoral as emotions take dominance."

This article has been translated from German.