An AFP photo of Israeli settlers clashing with local police in 2009 has resurfaced in social media posts falsely claiming it shows Israelis trying to “tear apart a Palestinian child.” The posts emerged during the Gaza war, which erupted after Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, who have long faced harassment from Israeli settlers, have experienced increasing violence there since the war began, the United Nations has warned.
“Settlers try to tear apart a Palestinian child in the occupied West Bank,” one X-message shared on June 26.
The photo – which circulated in similar reports in Arabic, Greek And Urdu — shows a group of men who appear to be pulling a person suspended in the air by their arms and legs. A man in uniform is visible in the foreground.
The UN has expressed its serious concern about increasing violence in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war on October 7.
Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Since then it has dozens of settlements in the West Bank, home to more than 490,000 Israelis who are considered illegal under international law (archived link).
About three million Palestinians live in the West Bank.
Settlement expansion has increased under successive governments since the capture of the West Bank, but is accelerated strongly under a pro-colonization government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On July 10, the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza reported that more than 38,240 people had been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, as the conflict raged for 10 months.
According to Palestinian figures, at least 568 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the beginning of the war due to military attacks and violence against Israeli settlers.
At least 16 Israelis, including soldiers, were killed in the area during the same period, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
Conflict between Israeli settlers
However, a Google search for the exact location of the photo revealed that it was taken years before the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.
The photo, which is available in AFP archiveswas taken by Yehuda Raizner on September 13, 2009.
The film shows settlers trying to drag a fellow settler away from Israeli police during fighting in the West Bank.
“Israeli settlers attempt to drag a fellow settler away as Border Police officers drag him away during clashes at the entrance to the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, west of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, after Israeli police attempted to confiscate a truck carrying materials for the construction of a new house on September 13, 2009,” the photo caption reads.
Below is a screenshot of the photo circulating online (left) and in the AFP archives (right):
Raizner took several photos of the encounter, published by AFP here And here.
Jehuda RaiznerAFP
Jehuda RaiznerAFP
Raizner told AFP Fact Check on July 4 that the man in the photo “was a settler who was arrested by the police, and his other friends tried to prevent him from being arrested.”
The fighting broke out after Israeli police intervened to prevent settlers from setting up a caravan in an informal settlement in the northern West Bank, police and witnesses said.
AFP has checked more disinformation about the war between Israel and Hamas here.
