RSS
A Teddy Bear in the Rubble: Are Gaza War Images Manipulated to Harm Israel?
Hamas terrorists carry grenade launchers at the funeral of Marwan Issa, a senior Hamas deputy military commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip, Feb. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
You’ve probably seen it before, not just in Gaza, not just in this war, but in war zones around the world. Amid the twisted metal and shattered concrete, there it is: a teddy bear. Soft, childlike, absurdly out of place. The implication is immediate and visceral. An innocent child has died here. The toy, half-buried in dust, is all that remains. It’s an image designed to evoke grief, outrage, and blame.
The grim truth is that war is horrific, and the innocent often suffer most. The death of a child is always a tragedy, whether in Gaza, in Israel, or anywhere else.
But in Gaza, as HonestReporting has documented repeatedly, Hamas not only puts civilians, including children, in harm’s way, it also manipulates the narrative. It inflates the civilian death toll, especially that of women and children, as part of a broader propaganda war against Israel.
And it works. The media has helped enable this strategy, often by repeating Hamas-supplied data without question, or worse, by using imagery that advances a one-sided emotional message. One of the most familiar examples is the teddy bear in the rubble.
These images tend to surface soon after Israeli airstrikes and spread quickly across international news outlets and social media. The message is unmistakable: a child was killed here. No caption is necessary. The toy says it all.
One example appeared in a BBC report on a blast at a Gaza café, where a senior Hamas terrorist was targeted. Amid the destruction, a teddy bear, barely damaged except for some dust, sat upright and prominently placed in the wreckage. The implication was clear. But are images like this always as genuine as they seem?
A review of the Getty Images archives, which supplies photographs to the world’s major news outlets, raises doubts. In several cases, teddy bears seem to have been deliberately placed.
On January 21, 2025, as residents returned to their homes in Rafah during a ceasefire, two different photographers captured images of children pulling a red teddy bear from the rubble. The captions described them as rescuing possessions. Yet the same bear appears in multiple shots, handled by different children, raising questions about how the scene was presented.
This is not an isolated case. A photo taken on October 6, 2024, by Abed Rahim Khatib for Turkish agency Anadolu, shows teddy bears placed atop rubble in Khan Yunis. The caption describes widespread devastation caused by Israeli strikes.
The same bear, in a nearly identical setup, appeared again in another Getty image, dated December 1, 2024. This photo, credited to Saeed Jaras of Middle East Images, was posted alongside the caption, “The girl who gathered them attempts to preserve joy amid the devastation.”
A broader search of Getty’s Gaza archive shows similar images again and again. The bears are often clean, carefully positioned, and stand out starkly against the grey rubble around them.
None of this is to suggest that children are not victims of war. They are. Civilian deaths occur even when precautions are taken. But the repeated appearance of carefully placed toys should raise questions. Not about whether tragedy exists, but about how it is presented and by whom.
A picture is worth a thousand words. And the cumulative effect of these carefully curated images is to build a false narrative — one in which Israel is cast as reckless or cruel, while Hamas’ tactics and responsibility are overlooked.
That narrative has taken hold. Headlines like The New Yorker’s recent “The War on Gaza’s Children” show how powerful these images can be. They drown out facts, fuel outrage, and make it harder to speak honestly about what is really happening.
No, @NewYorker, this is not a “war on Gaza’s children.”
It’s a war on Hamas, the terrorist organization responsible for bringing catastrophe upon everyone in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/wobsds5XjJ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 8, 2025
Because sometimes, a teddy bear on a pile of rubble is more persuasive than the truth.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post A Teddy Bear in the Rubble: Are Gaza War Images Manipulated to Harm Israel? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.