In response to the wishes expressed by our readers and their requests, we have carried out this special translation of articles from the Arabic language into English.We’ve also provided all the necessary updates.
(This text is a translation of the article published on October 23th, titled هل الصّورة لإقامة أوّل مخيّم للاجئي الكيان المحتلّ؟)
Pages and social media users have been circulating on instagram and twitter posts lately information suggesting that a refugee camp has been established in Israel.
The posts have been accompanied by an image that they say is of the camp that has been set up.
The posts claim that ‘’the occupation builts’’ the first camp for zionists on occupied Palestine land’’
Many shared the news along with the image, citing if from the Hebrew newspaper ‘’Maariv’’
The reaction of social media users varied between doubt, disapproval , support and skepticism, prompting our ‘’Tunifact’’ team to verify the accuracy of this information , to find out that it is false.
First, we visited the "Maariv" Hebrew newspaper's website, where the news was attributed to it. We found that the news was published on October 22 at 2:35 PM.
(The page has been translated by Google Translate into English)
The article talks about the city of Eilat, which has accommodated over 60,000 individuals who were evacuated from other areas. The city is now in the process of planning a tent city near its entrance due to the full occupancy of hotels and guesthouses.
According to the article, Eilat's Mayor, Eli Lankri, has instructed municipal employees to develop a proposal for the creation of a tent city covering approximately 150 dunams of land. However, it's important to note that the term used in the article, "مخطّط," can be translated as "plan" or "scheme," and the article does not explicitly state that tent cities have been established but rather that there is a proposal to do so.
When attempting to search for the news in a later stage by entering keywords into the search engine, we found no trace of it in any of the media outlets or the official pages of the Israeli Defense Forces
?What about the image
Regarding the image that was circulated widely on social media, which depicted several blue and white tents set up along the beach, some of them bearing the Star of David, the ''TuniFact'' team conducted a thorough investigation using various reverse search engines, such as Google Lens, and did not find any official sources to corroborate the claim that it was the first camp for displaced Zionists in Gaza.
Upon closer examination of the image, some inconsistencies were noticed. Firstly, the flag in the upper left part of the image displayed two poorly drawn Star of David symbols, rather than the single Star of David featured on the flag of the Zionist entity.
In addition to that, it was also noticed that despite the current sunny and warm weather in Israel (as of October 23, 2023), particularly in Eilat, where some reports suggest the image was taken, most individuals in the photo appeared to be wearing thick winter clothing.
Furthermore, numerous anomalies were observed in the images of the tents, despite the overall image appearing unnaturally smooth and clear in color, unlike typical photographs. This unnatural quality raised suspicions as well.
We ran the image through AI-generated image detection tools, such as AI or Not ,which told us that the image was likely generated by AI.
In a meticulous fourth stage of investigation, we employed image analysis technology, such as InVid's Forensics tool, which unveiled potential alterations or enhancements applied to the image. This process indeed exposed numerous modifications made to the image, shedding light on the significant changes that had taken place.
Consequently, it can be concluded that the image attributed to the establishment of a camp for zionists refugees is, in fact, fabricated.
Based on all the aforementioned evidence, ''TuniFact'' classifies the image accompanied by the headline "Establishment of the first camp for refugees of the occupied entity" as a piece of false information.
(Produced and Translated by Bchainia Wided)