Photo of Israeli settlers clashing with police falsely shared as ‘attack on Palestinian child’

An AFP photograph of Israeli settlers clashing with local police in 2009 resurfaced in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed Israelis trying to “tear a Palestinian child to pieces.” The posts circulated during the war in Gaza, which broke out after Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank – who have long faced harassment from Israeli settlers – have suffered an escalation of violence since the start of the war, the United Nations has warned.

“Savage settlers try to tear apart a Palestinian child in the occupied West Bank,” read one X post shared on June 26th.

The photo – which was circulated in similar posts on Arabic, Greek It is Urdu – shows a group of men appearing to pull a person suspended in the air by their arms and legs. A man in uniform is visible in the foreground.

The UN expressed great concern increasing violence in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza on 7 October.

Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Since then, it has built dozens of settlements throughout the West Bank, where more than 490,000 Israelis live, who are considered illegal under international law (archived link).

Around three million Palestinians reside in the West Bank.

Settlement expansion has increased under successive governments since the West Bank was seized, but accelerated sharply under pro-settlement administrations led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On July 10, the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said more than 38,240 people had been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, as the conflict moved into its tenth month.

According to Palestinian data, at least 568 Palestinians have died in the West Bank in military attacks and violence with Israeli settlers since the start of the war.

At least 16 Israelis, including soldiers, were killed in the territory during the same period, according to an AFP count from official Israeli data.

Conflict between Israeli settlers

However, a reverse image search on Google revealed that the photo was taken years before the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The photo, which is available at AFP Archiveswas taken by Yehuda Raizner on September 13, 2009.

It shows settlers trying to drag a fellow settler away from Israeli police during clashes in the West Bank.

“Israeli settlers try to pull away a fellow settler as border police 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 tried to confiscate a truck containing building materials a new house on September 13, 2009,” says the photo caption.

Below is a comparison of screenshots of the photo that circulated online (left) and in the AFP archives (right):

Raizner took several photos of the confrontation, published by AFP here It is here.

Raizner told AFP Fact Check on July 4 that the man in the photo “was a settler who the police tried to arrest and his other friends tried to prevent him from being arrested.”

Clashes broke out after Israeli police intervened to stop settlers from moving a trailer into an informal settlement in the northern West Bank, police and witnesses said.

AFP verified more misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war here.