No, This Video Does Not Show the Eight Palestinians Killed in the Car Accident in the West Bank
The Claim
A TikTok video shows eight teenagers' last meal before dying in a car accident in the occupied West Bank.
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Emerging story
Social media accounts and pages shared a video claiming to be the last meal for the eight Palestinians killed in a car accident on January 6, 2022.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar investigated the widely circulated claim and discovered it to be false. Mohammed Jabari first posted this video on TikTok in December. It was meant to show how workers live their lives every day.
In a phone call with Jabari, Misbar's team was assured that all of the workers depicted in the video are still alive and unrelated to the workers killed in the West Bank car accident.
On Thursday, a truck and a van collided on a narrow two-lane highway in the occupied West Bank, killing eight Palestinians and injuring two more. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared Friday a day of mourning for the victims, who he described as “martyrs of trying to make a living.”
The victims were schoolchildren from Aqraba village, outside of Nablus, under the age of 17 when they died in this horrific accident. During the holidays, they were employed as day laborers to help support their families.
Palestinian laborers are employed in Jewish settlements along Highway 90, which runs through the Jordan Valley. In Israel's settlements and occupied territories, many Palestinian workers are employed, and their wages are significantly higher than those earned in some parts of the West Bank. The economic disparity is primarily a result of Israel's 54-year occupation of the Palestinian territories and the construction of Israeli settlements.
