Viral video claiming to show actors staging in Rafah is actually from a Palestinian TV show

Amid talks of a cease-fire, Israeli forces said on May 7 that their military has entered Rafah, located on the Gaza-Egypt border, and taken control of a major border crossing used to deliver humanitarian aid.

The U.N. World Health Organization says it has only three days of fuel for its medical operations in southern Gaza, and shortages have already forced one of three hospitals in the city of Rafah to shut down. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt has been closed since Israel’s military took control of the Palestinian side early Tuesday, blocking the entry of vital humanitarian aid.

Since the news broke about Israeli forces taking over the Rafah crossing, a video being shared thousands of times on X and Instagram claims to show so-called crisis actors in Rafah “preparing.” The video has millions of views.

The video shows a man on a stretcher at a graveyard as a woman applies makeup. There is text over the screen that says “Make-up Gaza style.”

“In Gaza they are getting ready for the international media. And getting ready for Rafih [sic] attack,” an Instagram post with the video says.

Commenters questioned whether the video actually shows people in Rafah preparing to stage fake war images. Some said it’s actually from a Palestinian TV show.

THE QUESTION

Does the video show actors staging after Israeli forces entered Rafah?

THE SOURCES

• YouTube video posted by Palestinian director Bashar Al-Najjar
• Second episode of the “Bleeding Dirt” series

THE ANSWER

No, the video doesn’t show actors staging after Israeli forces entered Rafah. It’s lifted from a video taken from the set of a Palestinian television show that was posted online in April, weeks before Israel began its seizure of Rafah.

WHAT WE FOUND

The video does not show actors in Rafah in May after Israeli forces began their invasion of the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. The video shows the set of a Palestinian television series called “Nazeef Al-Turaab,” which translates to “Bleeding Dirt” in English. It’s unclear where this set is located.

Using clues from the comment section in the videos that were posted to X, VERIFY searched through the YouTube accounts associated with the series director, Bashar Al-Najjar.

On April 10, Al-Najjar posted this video to YouTube showing the same actor laying on the same stretcher as a person applying red paint to his body. The only difference between the viral video and the one posted by Al-Najjar is that the viral video is inverted so it gives the appearance the camera is being pointed in a different direction.

The hashtag in the video’s caption, written in Arabic and translated into English using Google Translate, says #Bleeding_dirt.

Next, we looked into the television series. Full episodes of Bleeding Dirt are posted on the Al Araby 2 YouTube channel. Al Araby 2 is an entertainment company. 

During the second episode, the same actors seen in the video being recently shared can be seen on screen. 

This is not the first time people online have claimed actors, or “crisis actors,” are being used to stage dramatic faked scenes during wartime to give the appearance things are worse than they really are. For example, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a video went viral claiming to show “dead” people moving inside of body bags. The video was actually from a climate change protest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.