Israeli social media accounts and pages published videos and images on Saturday, December 9, claiming that they show Hamas fighters surrendering themselves and their weapons to Israeli army forces in the Gaza strip.
Signs Show Civilians in the Images
Misbar analyzed the emerging Israeli narrative and found out that it is misleading. Analyzing the images led to several factors indicating that the individuals depicted are civilians who were present inside the Khalifa School in Beit Lahia, located in northern Gaza, during the ongoing Israeli ground invasion of the strip, rather than surrendered Hamas members. The scenes also seem to have occurred after the Israeli army compelled them to strip down to their underwear for filming purposes.
Two Versions of a Video Depicting a Man Holding an Ak-47
The Israeli army filmed and edited several scenes after coercing civilians to remove their clothes and stand naked at gunpoint.
Some of these images show a Palestinian man walking out of the group, holding an AK-47 rifle in his hand, clearly appearing to have been forced by Israeli forces to walk out toward them twice while holding the rifle up in the air, giving the appearance of a fighter surrendering.
Initially, the man is depicted in a video holding the rifle in his left hand, while in another video, he is shown holding it in his right hand.
In the footage, an Israeli soldier is heard shouting instructions in Arabic as the man, holding the rifle in his left hand, slowly advances. The soldier directs, "Raise the Kalashnikov, don’t fire. We don’t want any trouble. Raise the Kalashnikov and walk slowly. Take your time." The man proceeds cautiously, placing the weapon on the other side of the street, while the remaining crowd stands frightened, holding up their arms and displaying their identification papers, evidently fearful of being shot.
In the second video showing the same man, he is seen holding the rifle in his right hand as an Israeli soldier instructs him to “move slowly with the weapon, keep your hands up with the weapon, move, and place the weapon here. Walk away and lift your arms up." An Israeli soldier is shown in the video gesturing towards the man to advance and place the weapon.
An Aluminum Workshop Owner, Not a Hamas Fighter
Moments after the video was shared and circulated, several Gaza residents on social media recognized the man holding the AK-47 rifle. He is Moneer Qeshta Al-Masry, a civilian who owns an aluminum workshop in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. He sought refuge at the Khalifa school in Beit Lahia during the ongoing Israeli aggression on the strip. He, along with others, was kidnapped there, as reported by the head of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Ramy Abdu, on his X account.
How Did People Get Weapons After They Were Forced to Strip?
The images depict a crowd of inhabitants standing after being forced to strip off their clothes and appear in this way. The majority of them were not carrying any weapons, as it does not make sense to force people to take off their clothes while they are still armed. It would be more logical to disarm them first and then have them undress. Those seen in the images were raising their personal IDs and in a state of complete surrender. This suggests that the scenes were filmed and edited in this way after arming some civilians and portraying them as Hamas fighters.
Israeli Army Storms School Sheltering Civilians in Beit Lahia
These images emerged as the Israeli occupation forces stormed the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan school in the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza on Saturday, December 9. The building was sheltering thousands of displaced people. It was raided after the Israeli army besieged and targeted it with gas bombs and fire, resulting in dozens of Palestinian casualties and injuries.
According to the Anadolu Agency, witnesses and sources reported that the Israeli army forces arrested men who sought refuge in the school to escape Israeli bombings in their residential areas, after evacuating women and children.
Eyewitnesses said that, following the Israeli forces' storming of the school, they instructed women to go to the nearby Al-Qassam Square while the army surrounding and arresting the men. Witnesses stated that the army arrested young men and boys older than 15 years and later released a few of them, constituting no more than 10 percent of those initially arrested.
A Massacre at the Khalifa School in Beit Lahia
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qudra, reported during a press conference Saturday that the Israeli army committed “a horrible massacre at the Khalifa school in northern Gaza, resulting in dozens of casualties and injured people who bled to death."
Another Misleading Claim Involves Civilians Stripped by Israel
These images surfaced a few days subsequent to Israeli accounts publishing various pictures and videos of individuals who were stripped and blindfolded. These accounts claimed that these visuals depicted Israel's arrest of over 100 Hamas members after their emergence from tunnels in northern Gaza on December 7. Misbar previously investigated this claim and concluded that it was misleading, as the photos did not portray the arrest of Hamas members.
Instead, the images documented the arrest of dozens of Palestinians by the Israeli army during the ground invasion in northern Gaza, including “the arrest of journalists, doctors, academics, and elderly people from displacement centers in northern Gaza after they were stripped of their clothes,” according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.
Al-Araby Al Jadeed newspaper reported the arrest of its field correspondent in northern Gaza, Diaa Al-Kahlout, as part of this arrest campaign.
Ramy Abdu, the chairman of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, shared pictures on his X account displaying some Palestinians who were released after the arrest campaign on December 7. These images showed signs of torture inflicted by the occupation army, which had detained them in northern Gaza. The army claimed they were Hamas members, while in reality, they were civilians.
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