WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Videos show Palestinian children rehearsing a scene at a charity kitchen.
OUR VERDICT
False. There is no evidence the videos are connected.
AAP FACTCHECK - Social media users are falsely claiming two unrelated videos prove Palestinian children are staging scenes of hunger and desperation at charity kitchens in Gaza.
However, there is no evidence that the two videos are connected, and they were taken on different days at different locations.
The accusation appears in a Facebook post by the Israel Institute of New Zealand (IINZ), a pro-Israel think tank and advocacy organisation.
"Pallywood in action. Here they are rehearsing lines in the car between takes. A large amount of the 'Gaza footage' is either staged, scripted, or lifted straight from Yemen and Syria. Credit Gazawood," the caption reads.
One side of the split-screen video shows a crowd of people waiting for food at a charity kitchen.
The clip next to it shows a man in a press vest driving a car, with children and women in the back seat crying.
Overlaid arrows suggest two of the children are the same person.
"Pallywood" or "Gazawood" - which blend the words Palestine/Gaza and Hollywood - are derogatory terms used to suggest Palestinians are staging scenes for cameras.
When AAP FactCheck asked the IINZ for evidence to support its claim, its director provided a link to an X thread from the account @Gazawood1, which shared the same video.
Captions in that post also question the authenticity of an airstrike in northern Gaza, and suggest that two girls in the juxtaposed clips are the same person.
However, analysis by AAP FactCheck reveals that the videos were taken on different days and in different locations, and that the timing of the "rehearsal" video is well after the supposedly "staged" scene.
A reverse image search reveals the footage of the crowd was filmed on May 2, 2025, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, at Rafah Charity Kitchen.
It's compiled from clips shared by Al Hadath news agency on YouTube and freelance journalist Doaa Albaz on Instagram.
A longer video from the same day filmed by Ms Albaz is also available on Getty Images.
Arrows in the Facebook post point at two children alongside each other, but they can be better identified in the original, higher-quality videos.
One is wearing a green top and the child next to her is wearing an orange T-shirt.
The Getty video features an interview with the girl in green, during which she identifies herself as Islam Rami Al-Jamal (pictured above, second from left).
She describes feeling suffocated and exhausted at the charity kitchen while getting food for herself and her siblings, according to a translation by Hazem Al Taqatqa from the Arab Fact-Checkers Network, a fact-checking project led by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism.
Despite the Facebook post claiming the children are "rehearsing" lines for the charity kitchen footage, the clip in the car was actually filmed two weeks later, in a different part of Gaza.
A reverse image search reveals that it was posted on Instagram on May 16, 2025, by Alghad TV journalist Mahmoud Abu Salama, who was working in northern Gaza at the time.
"In the absence of ambulances and the intensification of Israeli bombardment on the north of Gaza Strip, we pick up the bodies of the martyrs with our own vehicles," the caption, translated from Arabic, reads.
In an Instagram video on August 9, 2025, Mr Abu Salama responded to claims the footage was manufactured, explaining it was filmed in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, in the aftermath of an Israeli bombing attack.
"I transported the wounded and martyrs in my own vehicle and took them to the Indonesian Hospital," he says, according to AAP FactCheck's translation.
In May 2025, Israel escalated air strikes, attacks and bombings across the Gaza Strip after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his cabinet had approved plans for a new ground offensive.
The BBC reported Israel launched a large-scale assault on the town of Beit Lahia on the morning of May 16, 2025.
The ABC reported that at least 66 people were killed in northern Gaza in the early hours of the morning, causing people to flee Beit Lahia and the nearby Jabalia refugee camp.
Higher-quality versions of the clips used in the Facebook post suggest that the children featured are different.
The girl in green, featured in the Getty video, has a chip in her top front teeth, which doesn't match either of the children in the car.
There are also clear differences in the shape of the children's faces, eyebrows, noses and eyes.
Additionally, it's unlikely children would have travelled from Khan Younis to Beit Lahia in May, as the Israeli military had warned Palestinians against moving between the south and north, Turkish news outlet Anadolu Ajansi reported.
False claims that videos and photos of Palestinians waiting at food kitchens are staged have spread widely on social media after the UN warned of mounting evidence of famine in Gaza.
Reports of starvation and malnutrition due to Israel's blockade have been documented by Palestinians, journalists and multiple humanitarian organisations.
Israel does not allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza.
The World Health Organization reported 74 malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, including 24 children under five.
Israel stopped all food entering Gaza from March 2 to May 19, 2025, and has since allowed only a limited amount of aid to enter the enclave, as reported by the BBC.
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