BTS Footage of Awareness Video Falsely Shared as ‘Palestinians Faking Injuries'

The 2017 video explores the work of Mariam Saleh, Gaza's first female special effects makeup artist.

The video shows people from the Gaza strip preparing for an awareness campaign, not faking injuries.

(Source: X/Altered by The Quint)

A video showing people applying makeup on many men, women and children, which mimics minor to severe injuries, is being shared across social media platforms.

What are users saying?: The video is being shared with text that it shows people the "real truth of Palestine," claiming that Palestinians are faking injuries and then blaming Israel amid the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel.

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archives of more claims can be seen here and here.)

But...?: The video is from February 2017 and shows Palestinian makeup artist Mariam Saleh's work as a female special effects makeup artist in Gaza's film industry.

How did we find out?: Using InVID, we divided the video into multiple keyframes and ran reverse image searches on some of them.

• One of these results led us to a 2019 video, which mentioned the Gaza film industry and a woman called Mariam Saleh.

• With these as keywords, we looked for more information on the viral video on YouTube.

• This led us to a video by TRT World, which was uploaded on 2 March 2017, and discussed Gaza's film industry and special effects makeup artist Mariam Saleh.

• It talks about Saleh, who learned how to make fake blood, breaking into a male-dominated industry.

• She is seen creating "horrific-looking injuries" on actors for a special project by French charity Doctors of The World, who aimed at raising awareness of the dangers faced by the people living in Gaza.

• One can see the same people in TRT's report and the viral video.

(Swipe to view both images.)

The same woman is seen in both videos.

In both videos, the same people can be seen sitting on the ground, against a bus.

At the beginning of the video, the word 'simulation' can be seen on a banner, along with the logo of the French charity Médecins du Monde (or Doctors of The World).

The banner reads 'simulation'.

(Source: YouTube/Altered by The Quint)

The Quint had previously debunked another version of this video, when it was being shared with a similar claim in 2021.

Conclusion: A video showing the work of Palestinian special effects makeup artist Mariam Saleh is being shared with the false claim that it shows people from Palestine faking injuries amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

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