Photo of ‘tents on fire in Gaza’ is unrelated artwork

An image of tents on fire while people look on is being shared on social media with claims it was taken in Gaza, but it is actually a screenshot from a video created by an artist. 

Captions with the post say: “This photo needs to be the front page of every news paper in the world. [sic]

“20 tents full of displaced families buried alive in Gaza.”

One post on X, formerly Twitter, has more than 1.1 million views, and the picture has also spread to Facebook.

But it isn’t real. A reverse image search shows it is a screenshot from a video created by an artist in July this year. The bottom right hand corner of the original video is labelled ‘AI’, but it’s unclear if this is intended to mean the video was created using artificial intelligence, as suggested by the strange movement of the flames, or if it is some other kind of watermark. On TikTok, the creator captioned the video “Karbala”, in an apparent reference to the city in modern-day Iraq which is a pilgrimage site for Shia Muslims due to its significance as the location of a famous battle.

We have contacted the artist about their video and will update this article if we receive a response.

Events similar to those described in the caption have occurred recently even if the video used alongside is not real. Reuters and the BBC reported that at least 20 tents caught fire with others feared buried in the sand after Israeli strikes on a camp of tents in a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza in September. 

Misinformation spreads quickly during significant global events and can be difficult to contain. It’s important to make sure you check something is genuine before you share it on social media. To find out more read our guides on how to spot misleading images and videos.