The death of a baby is tragic, always.  But for the terrorists in Gaza and their supporters, the death of a child provides an irresistible public relations bonanza. Even when the killer of the baby isn’t their enemy, but their own weapons.

So when the Egyptian Prime Minister, Hesham Kandil, paid a visit to Gaza as a show of support for his fellow Islamists, a dead four-year-old child, Mahmoud Sadallah, was furnished for the photo opportunity.  The staging was perfect: Kandil, gently laying a kiss on the dead child’s forehead, while Ismael Haniya, a Prime Minister of Hamas, holds the child aloft, as dozens of concerned men look on in the background.

Kandil fought back tears as he said to reporters gathered to record the moment, “What I saw today in the hospital, the wounded and the martyrs, the boy … whose blood is still on my hands and clothes, is something that we cannot keep silent about.”

CNN referred to Mahmoud as the “symbol of the war in Gaza.”  Kandil told the cameras,”I saw the child who was martyred,” and called on Israel to halt “the offensive.”

CNN, The Mirror (UK) and other media, including Norway’s Dagbladet showed the touching scene.

But there is one problem: Israel isn’t responsible for Mahmoud Sadallah’s death.  Hamas is.

Sadallah was brought to Shifra Hospital in Gaza City after having been struck while playing outside of his home.  Although his family members told reporters that Mahmoud was killed in an airstrike from Israel, the facts don’t add up.

Israel agreed to a ceasefire during the time the Egyptian Prime Minister was in Gaza. Terrorists from Gaza continued firing during Kandil’s visit, but Israel held back, and certainly did not fire anywhere near where Kandil was visiting.

In addition, no one saw the strike, although there were reports that an explosion was heard.  The damage was consistent with that of a much smaller weapon, such as a qassam or morter shell.

But what really seems to point away from Israel having been responsible is that although there was evidence of what caused the explosion, that evidence was immediately removed from the area and has not been seen since.

Lebanon’s Daily Star had this to say:

Mahmoud’s family said the boy was in an alley close to his home when he was killed, along with a man of about 20, but no one appeared to have witnessed the strike. The area showed signs that a projectile might have exploded there, with shrapnel marks in the walls of surrounding homes and a shattered kitchen window. But neighbors said local security officials quickly took what remained of the projectile, making it impossible to verify who fired it.

But the pictures have been taken and the CNN video has aired.  Hamas now has its own Mohammed Al-Durah-style fake martyr with which to demonize Israel.

During Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense, Al Qassam, Hamas’ paramilitary wing, has used its Twitter presence to threaten the IDF and spread anti-Israel lies. Last night, Breitbart.com’s Joel Pollak caught another despicable bit of Twitter propaganda from Hamas: a  photo of a dead child in his weeping father’s arms.

As Pollak notes, the child did not die in Gaza. The photo appeared in a slideshow on the Syrian conflict in October. Even Hamas sympathizers called out the blatant and stomach-turning lie.

I was stunned to see the following picture in an article by Amira Hass in Ha’aretz. I had never seen such a clear image that purports to show Corrie about to be crushed by a bulldozer:

The caption reads:

Rachel Corrie opposite the bulldozer, 16 March, 2003. Photo: AP

But does it really show what happened?

A little digging on the internet turned up a blog post by “Carlos” at “Peace with Realism” from 2003: “The Death of Rachel Corrie” which investigated the photograph, and found yet another. Both were published by ISM, and are easily found by googling “Rachel Corrie” and looking for images.

At first sight, it seems obvious what happened – she stood near the bulldozer shouting at it to stop using a megaphone, and then was crushed by it. But was that really what these pictures show?

Well, Electronic Intifada ran with the pictures supplied to it by ISM and rather gave the game way. Under the left hand picture, it noted that the picture was taken “between 3:00-4:00PM”:

Picture taken between 3:00-4:00PM on 16 March 2003, Rafah, Occupied Gaza. A clearly marked Rachel Corrie, holding a megaphone, confronts the driver of one of two Israeli bulldozers in the area that were attempting to demolish a Palestinian homes. She was confronting the bulldozer in order to disrupt its work, and prevent it from threatening any homes. Photo by Joseph Smith.

But under the right hand picture, the time of 4:45 PM was given for the accident – the picture was obviously taken seconds after the accident:

Picture taken at 4:45PM on 16 March 2003, Rafah, Occupied Gaza. Other peace activists tend to Rachel after she was fatally injured by the driver of the Israeli bulldozer (in background).

Noting the discrepancy, “Carlos” then took a deeper look at the pictures (my emphasis):

These pictures have been shown to be a hoax. The “before” picture shows Rachel standing in front of the bulldozer with a megaphone, some distance away and foreshortened by perspective, making her appear to be in clear sight of the bulldozer. The presentation also makes it appear that this took place immediately before the incident. However, the photographer himself later admitted that no one with a camera had been present at the site just before Rachel’s accident, that the picture with the megaphone had actually been taken hours earlier, and that at the time of the accident Rachel was not in sight of the driver. An examination of the pictures themselves, noting, for example, the difference in the color of the sky, shows they could not have been taken close to the same point in time. In addition, the bulldozers shown in these supposed “before” and “after” pictures are not the same.

Indeed both CNN, which ran the two pictures, and the New York Times, which ran the first one, published the following corrections:

CNN, March 25, 2003:

Caption clarification: Photos by an International Solidarity Movement eyewitness show Rachel Corrie protesting earlier, and then later, after she was hit by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza on Sunday.

The New York Times, March 26, 2003:

A picture caption on March 17 with an article about an American protester who was crushed by an Israeli Army bulldozer in Gaza referred incorrectly to the bulldozer shown. It was one that the protester, Rachel Corrie, had earlier tried to stop from destroying a Palestinian home. It was not the one that killed her.

Nevertheless pro-Palestinian web sites, including the International Solidarity Movement’s own web site, continue to present the two pictures with incorrect and misleading labels.

Finally, according to “Carlos”, “A later report from ISM Media Coordinator Michael Shaik in Beit Sahour offered more details about the event”. In fact, Shaik made an admission that makes it clear why the bulldozer driver could not have seen Corrie, and why the first photograph has no direct connection to the accident that killed her:

Rachel was sitting in the path of the bulldozer as it advanced towards her.

Only when she realized she could not be seen, did she try to escape:

When the bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside she climbed up onto the mound of dirt and rubble being gathered in front of it wearing a fluorescent jacket to look directly at the driver who kept on advancing. The bulldozer continued to advance so that she was pulled under the pile of dirt and rubble.

To claim that the “bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside” is a gross distortion – how could he have seen someone sitting on the ground behind a growing pile of dirt and the huge blade of his bulldozer? Then when she realized her situation, instead of moving back or sideways, perhaps in a panic she advanced towards the moving bulldozer, something no sensible person would do, and was crushed under the dirt and rubble.

Moreover, if you look at the two bulldozers, the one visible at the scene of the accident appears to be much larger, with a much larger blade and a much smaller aperture for the driver to see through than the one photographed earlier. Both these differences would have made it harder for the driver to seen anyone in his path.

Corrie was callously used in life by ISM, and is callously being used in death by all those trying to make a case against Israel.

If the picture used by Ha’aretz, to its shame, is the one we start to see in articles about Corrie, it pays to remember that once again the death of this woman is being used, like the Al Durrah affair, as a typical piece of Pallywood fauxtography.

In the battle over public opinion, much has been said about the IDF and Israel –some of it true, a lot of it not. Many times a photo or a video goes viral, giving people a completely false impression of what really happened. Here are 5 smear campaigns about the IDF, from the least-known to the most famous, which turned out to be 100% fake:

5. IDF Soldier Stepping on Girl

In February, a photo showing a girl being stepped on by an IDF soldier went viral, sparking outrage online against Israel. First debunked by ElderofZiyon, the photo was in fact part of a 2009 street theater showin Bahrain.

The photo which circulated online

The full picture

4. Mavi Marmara Photo Fraud

The 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, also known as the “Gaza flotilla raid”, sparked much debate over the nature of “non-violent” activism. The flotilla’s passengers claimed to have been completely peaceful; the soldiers claimed to have been lynched. Several months after the incident a Turkish news outlet released photos contradicting the activists’ claims, showing a so-called “non-violent activist” holding a bloodstained knife with a pool of blood–but the photos, when published by Reuters, were suspiciously cropped and omit the weapon.

Original photo published by Hurriyet

Photo published by Reuters

Originally debunked by the blog Little Green Footballs, further proof later showed the so-called activists attacking the soldiers violently.

Original photo published by Hurriyet

Photo published by Reuters

3. Raja Abu Shaban

In March, during an escalation of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, a photo of Raja Abu Shaban, a 3-year-old allegedly killed by an IDF airstrike in Gaza, was circulating on Twitter. The misinformation campaign started when a UN worker, Khulood Badawi, posted the photo and claimed that it was recent – and that the IDF was to blame. It wasn’t true. Sadly, Raja Abu Shaban was killed when she fell off a swing in 2006.

Correction published on August 10th, 2006

The false claims were originally debunked by Avi Mayer and the IDF Blog, with later details added by Honest Reporting. Along with the Raja Abu Shaban photo, other dated photos which were attributed to the fighting also turned out to be false.

2. 2006 Lebanon War Photos

During the Lebanon War in 2006, photos that were manipulated or blatantly staged started flooding international media outlets, giving a twisted perspective of the reality in the field. The most well-known incident was when Adnan Hajj, a freelance journalist employed by Reuters, manipulated the smoke in photos of Beirut in order to falsely imply that Israeli air strikes caused greater damage.

The original photo, and the doctored one, taken by Adnan Hajj, Reuters-employed photojournalist

The photos were originally debunked by the blog Little Green Footballs. Later, bloggers who analyzed other images discovered that more photos were doctored, and Hajj was subsequently fired. Despite this exposure, many other news outlets also published fake photos or misleading captions.

Adnan Hajj’s doctored photos. Areas where Photoshop “clone” tool were used are highlighted (Credit: Lemonodor)

1. Muhammad al-Durrah

One of the most famous images from the last 15 years comes from what is known as the Mohammed al-Durrah incident. Originally filmed by Talal Abu Rahma for France 2 television, the footage allegedly shows that Muhammad al-Durrah, a 12-year-old boy, was killed by IDF fire and died in his father’s arms. The boy became a martyr and a symbol of the Palestinian Intifada.

Screenshot from France 2’s Muhammad al-Durrah footage

The IDF was not to blame. Several sources worldwide debunked the original France 2 footage and suggest that al-Durrah was shot at by Palestinian forces – or that the whole incident was staged. Read more about the investigations and decide for yourself.