On October 7th, the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,’ attacking Israel. In retaliation, Israel conducted counter-strikes in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. During this conflict, a claim was widely reported by media outlets that a newborn had been rescued from a house’s rubble in Gaza, damaged by Israeli bombing, 37 days after the incident.
Several media outlets, including Gulf Today (UAE), Gulf News (UAE), Daily Pakistan (Pakistan), New Straits Times (Malaysia), The News Tribe (Australia), and Latestly (India) published articles with this claim.
Some viral Facebook posts with this claim can be found here (archive), here (archive), here (archive), and here (archive)
Some viral X posts with this claim can be found here (archive), here (archive), here (archive), and here (archive)
A TikTok post with this claim can be found here (archive).
Fact Check
The Rumor Scanner Team’s investigation revealed that the newborn, found alive under rubble in Gaza, was trapped for just three hours, not 37 days as claimed by media outlets.
In the early stages of the investigation, Rumor Scanner examined several articles from news sources. One frequently cited source in Bangladeshi national media was Gulf News, a UAE-based agency.
The headline of Gulf News’ report on November 28 suggested that a newborn was rescued on the 37th day of a conflict. However, the article itself clarified that the rescue occurred much earlier.
Nooh Al Shaghnobi, a Civil Defense member and photographer present at the rescue, was cited by Gulf News. His Instagram account, where he posted a video related to the event, was referenced.
On November 27th, four posts about the newborn were identified on Nooh Al Shaghnobi’s Instagram account.
In the first post, he shared a video of the rescue with a caption in Arabic, translating to: “This child, born in war and less than a month old, lost his parents but was given a new life after being rescued from the rubble following three hours of effort.”
The second post featured photos of all the rescuers with the newborn, accompanied by the same caption.
In a third post, he shared a video of the newborn being transported in a vehicle, again with the same caption.
Therefore, the Instagram posts by Nooh Al Shaghnobi, cited as the news source about the newborn, do not corroborate this information.
Further inquiries by the Rumor Scanner Team with Reham Abu Aita, co-founder of the Palestinian fact-checking organization Kashif, confirmed that the newborn girl, named Salam, was indeed trapped under the rubble for three hours.
Bottom Line
A local rescuer reported on November 27th, amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas in Palestine and Israel, that a newborn was rescued in Gaza after being trapped under the rubble for three hours. Contrary to media reports, the claim that the newborn survived under the rubble for 37 days is inaccurate.
Thus, the claim that a newborn was trapped under the rubble in Gaza for 37 days is misleading.
Sources
- nooh.xp : Instagram Post 1
- nooh.xp : Instagram Post 2
- nooh.xp : Instagram Post 3
- Statement from Reham Abu Aita, Kashif
- Rumor Scanner’s own analysis
