What did you do during the genocide in Gaza?

[ssd]

This is a brilliant article.

This will be taught in schools one day and our grandkids will ask us but what did you do when you knew this was happening?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/22/israel-gaza-genocide

It’s all so disingenuous. I’m sorry.
Plenty of people feel deep sympathy for suffering children without resorting to conspiracy theories or racist tropes.

Plenty of grieving parents in brutal conflicts don’t stop to stage TikTok videos.

Open your eyes. At best, you're being manipulated by Hamas propaganda. They don’t fight like men—they commit crimes against humanity, then deliberately use civilians as shields. They don’t protect children—they hide behind them. They refuse to surrender, refuse to return hostages, knowing it would save lives—including children’s lives.

Some Palestinians absolutely exploit their own kids. We've seen it—staged photos, choreographed videos. Footage of children dragging bags of flour while the adult films instead of helping. I saw one recently: a driver filming himself in an ambulance while holding a baby. Really? No one in the passenger seat could hold the child while he drove? Especially as their hands were free to hold the camera????

Children being harmed, killed, or even terrified sickens me.

Faking it sickens me too.

Standing around filming allegedly dead or wounded kids instead of helping them? That’s exploitation.

And frankly, I’ve never seen any other conflict do it like this.

It’s craven. It’s deliberate. And it’s absolutely fucking awful.

I'm saying that Israel has not been "getting its story out" in the same way, and if it did, you might not be so glib about the dangers it faces.

Also, given your concern about US funding, how do you feel about the obscene wealth dispensed by various ME countries (notably Iran and Qatar) to enable Hamas to keep up its continuous attacks against Israel instead of making any the improvements to the Gazan infrastructure?

Actually this is what shocked me most, it wouldn't and it didn't for the hard core. I saw celebrations of 7/10 in western countries while it was happening, celebrations of the atrocities. I saw rape denial and accusations of hasbara, I heard a hamas official in a BBC interview deny what happened on 7/10.

I heard Yuval Raphael's testimony and I saw the crowds vilifying her.

I've heard people justify it and gaslight the meaning of jihad, or from the river to the sea, or kill all the zionists, in my country thousands of miles from Israel, from people with no skin in the game ( unless for some you count the ummah - I could at least understand that).

Israelis and Jewish people have been successfully de-humanised by a swathe of people whilst accusing those who don't join them of doing that to Gazans.

Disgusting post. It is their story and they can do what they want with it. It is not up to a randomer sitting in a nice office in London to say what they should and should not post about their lived experience.
Without it Israel would be getting away with even more crimes because no one would know.

I don't give a shit if they want to do Tik Tok dances on their child's grave if it gets the truth out there because it's not like any independent journalists can .

Absolutely terrible they shouldn't be funding terrorist organizations in order to destabilize the region instead of using the money to bring peace.

I saw loads of videos on social media of Israelis going to bomb shelters during the bombing by Iran.

And of them fleeing to the airports.

Aside from the horrific images from October 7th which belong to Israels story to do with how they wish (to show or not show I don't know if I am making myself clear there)what other dangers should be shown to the world.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about Gaza, Ukraine and every other country experiencing war, genocide, climate disaster and famine.

Sadly, this is very true. I noticed the same, especially here on MN where much of it was (and apparently continues to be) met with indifference, frank disbelief, or even ridicule.

How virtuous of you.

Has there ever been another conflict where videos of suffering or dying children - sometimes even staged - were deliberately posted on TikTok for propaganda?

No. Not like this. Not even close.

In most conflicts footage of injured or terrified children exists but its actually quite hard to find.

What we are seeing in Gaza is something different altogether. Hamas actively encourages the use of children’s suffering in propaganda to sway global opinion.

There's deliberate filming, often stylised, of children suffering.

There are countless TikToks and reels of children crying, bleeding, or supposedly rescued — and many are clearly staged.

We've all seen alleged “funeral” footage where the “corpse” moves. Scenes from Lebanon, Syria or even movies passed off as real. The same child dying three times in three different scenes. Kids howling or bleeding as adults stand around pointing phones at them.

In a real emergency, you’d help, not perform for the camera.

This is not the norm in war or telling a story it is weaponising suffering of kids.

It’s exploitation. And it’s sick.

How lucky of them to have bomb shelters, eh?

Imagine if Hamas had invested all those gazillions of oil-rich funding into something similar, or an iron dome, instead of what it actually invested in, such as siting weapons under schools and hospitals to maximise civilian casualties.

In recent years there have been tens of thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from Gaza, suicide bombings and armed assaults, vehicle rammings and stabbings. The atrocities of 7 Oct, which seem to have registered as a tiny blip on your radar, were the straw that broke the camel's back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel

The vast majority of images and videos from October 7 were taken by attackers as propaganda to show in full glory their handiwork. I believe Israel removed lots and kept things very quiet. They have not even revealed the names of the children murdered on that day.

@ForgeOfEmpires What's sick is once again people trying to control Palestinians. Before the war every part of their lives were controlled by Israeli permits and now their children are being bombed in their tents it's unbecoming of them to try and tell the world about it

If it wasn't for the ambulance driver filming that night we might never have known the real story that the IDF brutally murdered innocent people at the side of the street and buried their bodies and instead would have been the usual "story" that they tried to put out initially .

They wouldn't have to weaponize the suffering of kids if kids weren't suffering.

Hamas should have invested in schools and public buildings, I agree with you instead of using the money for weaponry.

That wasn't the point I was making though I was explaining that Israelis utilise social media (as is their right) also to show the reality of their lives.

As is their right to do so as it is a part of their history and story.

I am not sure what you mean to say with this post.

Are you saying that Israel not committing genocide in Gaza is the same as being held to high standard? I would love Israel to just leave Gaza alone and deal with their own problems as you say. Remove themselves from the occupied territories would be a great start by Israel and I absolutely behind that.

There was much more freedom of movement in Gaza until Hamas took over in 2007, after which Israel began to impose security measures restricting movement. I used to think they were just being mean, but the events of 7 Oct kind of demonstrate what they were up against 🤯

Regarding the ambulance incident, the IDF admitted its mistake and conducted an investigation, later reporting that almost half of the medics who died had been confirmed as Hamas operatives. Of course, you will be sceptical about that, but I wish you would exercise similar critical appraisal skills when examining Hamas's claims.

Please consider that in "fair" wars (if any war can ever be called "fair"!) the combatants are clearly identified with military uniforms. Hamas does the precise opposite. It must be fiendishly difficult to fight terrorists that deliberately disguise themselves as civilians and aid workers.

www.lbc.co.uk/world-news/israel-admits-mistakenly-killing-15-aid-workers-after-video-leak/

There was an ambulance driver, holding a baby, whilst driving. The passenger, rather than holding the baby, was holding a camera. Putting the life of the baby in direct peril. There's nothing defensible about that.

Nobody says its unbecoming to tell your story. Gaza has the eyes and ears of the entire planet on them, so it's quite disingenuous to contend they are silenced. No suffering people get anything close to the same attention. Mumsnet has an entire board for them.

I worked some time ago on briefings for the Yazidi genocide under ISIS. We know the Yazidi genocide happened not because of viral TikToks or because journalists watched it. We know because truth doesn’t require performance—just evidence and the courage of survivors. That doesn't mean silencing victims, it means telling the simple truth without exploiting anyone involved, particularly children.

Contrary to getting their story out, these stylised, sometimes entirely faked videos do the opposite and cast doubt on the veracity of the real stories. We work off a moral code where there's some things you just don't lie about. Unfortunately we've seen that line crossed many times.

There are kids genuinely dying. There are kids genuinely having their limbs blown off. Lots of them. The grieving family do not TikTok it. The fact that Hamas, and some Gazan people, uses kids or stories as means of propaganda is completely sickening. It doesn't inform you, it manipulates you.

Thank you for some moral decency. The performative manipulation of this conflict is terrifying.

But... they actually don't! Not systematically saturating social media, the way Hamas does (presenting it, of course, as simply "people's voices being heard"). Israel has been very restrained. Graphic content is sometimes shared with foreign diplomats and journalists behind closed doors to influence policy or media coverage, rather than being widely broadcast. Greta had the chance to see it, but wasn't interested.

You would have to actively search for disturbing images online - partly out of respect for the dead and not wanting to exploit or further traumatise their families. There are also legal and investigative concerns, not wanting to compromise war crimes documentation or legal proceedings. And of course, crazy though this may sound, reluctance to feed the grotesque delight some people take in seeing the suffering of Jews.

"The only innocents in Gaza are the kids and their suffering is in their parents hands."

This is sick. 🤢

Elaborate?

It really is isn’t it and racist.!! This assumption that all adults in Gaza are not innocent. Disgraceful

Ambulance driver might have made a poor choice carrying the child while doing CPR yes but we are constantly being told here about the IDF who make poor choices because "it's war" so we will have to use that argument for both sides.

My point stands if the other ambulance driver hasn't filmed the stop we would all have believed the IDF bull.

"just evidence and the courage of survivors".

So don't document it now wait till this mystical time that Israel will stop killing you and then you will be the perfect victim and can tell your story.

If the stories/images are true do you class them as propaganda?