How we know a widely-viewed video of a malnourished Gazan is not AIpublished at 17:11 British Summer Time
17:11 BST
Richard Irvine-Brown BBC Verify journalist
In our work, we often come across AI-generated images being passed off as real developments related to conflict. Less often we also come across examples of real footage which leads to accusations of being fabricated.
This weekend we saw three critical X posts – with the same exact wording and 75,000 views between them – claiming a picture of a malnourished Palestinian man had been generated by Grok, X’s AI tool.
We have investigated and can confirm it wasn’t.
The video was shared by Ramy Abdu, chairman of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. His post has been viewed half a million times.
Those critical posts focused on the man’s hand as proof of AI-generation because the technology can struggle to replicate details like digits, ears and hair. These are often rendered inconsistently by AI – but in this instance a mark on the man’s hand does not change shape throughout the clip.
We have also seen other recent videos of the man, named as Salim Asfour, which show the same light mark around the upper knuckle of his right middle finger – as you can see below.
This screenshot is from an interview with Samer al-Boji, a journalist in Gaza, who had recently been posting material from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
We also know from the metadata attached to al-Boji’s clip on Instagram that it was posted late morning on 3 August.
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Tourists look at the Horseshoe Falls, ahead of the Solar Eclipse that will take place across parts of the United States and Canada on April 8, at Niagara Falls, New York, US, April 5, 2024. — Reuters
New visa programme to launch on August 20.
Consular officers granted discretion to impose visa bonds.
Pilot programme to run for one year, aims to tighten screening.
The US could require up to $15,000 bonds for some tourist and business visas under a new pilot programme launching in two weeks, a US government notice said on Monday, an effort that aims to crack down on visitors who overstay their visas.
The programme gives US consular officers the discretion to impose bonds on visitors from countries with high rates of visa overstays, according to a Federal Register notice. The bonds also could be applied to people coming from countries where screening and vetting information is deemed insufficient, the notice said.
US President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a central focus of his presidency, surging resources to secure the border and arresting people in the US illegally.
The Republican president issued a travel ban in June that blocks citizens of 12 nations from entering the US on national security grounds.
The new visa programme, effective August 20, will last for approximately a year, the government notice said.
The US government launched a similar pilot programme in November 2020 during the last months of Trump’s first term in office, but it was not fully implemented due to the drop in global travel associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the notice said.
The UN expert who first warned that Israel was orchestrating a campaign of deliberate mass starvation in Gaza more than 500 days ago, has said that governments and corporations cannot claim to be surprised at the horror now unfolding.
“Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it’s always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024,” Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the Guardian.
“Israel is starving Gaza. It’s genocide. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s a war crime. I have been repeating it and repeating it and repeating it, I feel like Cassandra,” said Fakhri, referring to the Greek mythological figure whose warnings and predictions were ignored.
On 9 October 2023 – two days after the deadly Hamas attack – Israel’s then defense minister, Yoav Gallant, declared a “complete siege” of Gaza and said he would halt the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel. By December 2023, Gazans accounted for 80% of the people in the world experiencing catastrophic hunger, according to UN and international aid agency figures.
Now, widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving the sharp rise in hunger-related deaths across Gaza, with more than 20,000 children hospitalized for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global initiative that provides real-time data on hunger and famine for the UN and aid groups.
The “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out” across the Gaza Strip, the IPC warned in an alert earlier this week.
Fakhri was among the first to warn about the impending famine – and the need for urgent action to stop Israel from starving 2 million people in Gaza.
In an interview with the Guardian published on 28 February 2024, Fakhri said: “We have never seen a civilian population made to go so hungry so quickly and so completely, that is the consensus among starvation experts … Intentionally depriving people of food is clearly a war crime. Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian … this is now a situation of genocide.”
bar chart showing starvation deaths in Gaza over time
The following month, the international court of justice recognized the risk of genocide in Gaza and drew attention to the “spread of famine and starvation”. The ICJ said that Israel must immediately take all necessary and effective measures, in cooperation with the UN, to ensure unfettered access to humanitarian aid including food, water, shelter, fuel and medicines.
In May, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former defense minister Gallant became the first ever individuals to be formally accused by an international court of deliberate starvation, which is a war crime.
In July 2024, a group of UN experts including Fakhri declared a famine after the first deaths from starvation were reported in Gaza. Fakhri also published a detailed report for the UN into Israel’s decades-long control over food production and supplies to Palestinians, a stranglehold which meant 80% of people in Gaza were dependent on aid when Gallant announced the current siege in October 2023.
Yet there has been little or no action to stop Israel starving Palestinians, which it has achieved by systematically destroying local food production (greenhouses, orchards, farmland) and blocking aid – in violation of international law.
According to Fakhri, this is why famine has now taken hold in Gaza.
“Famine is always political, always predictable and always preventable. But there is no verb to famine. We don’t famine people, we starve them – and that inevitably leads to famine if no political action is taken to avoid it.
“But to frame the mass starvation as a consequence of the most recent blockade, is a misunderstanding of how starvation works and what’s going on in Gaza. People don’t all of a sudden starve, children don’t wither away that quickly. This is because they have been deliberately weakened for so long. The state of Israel itself has used food as a weapon since its creation. It can and does loosen and tighten its starvation machine in response to pressure; it has been fine-tuning this for 25 years.”
chart showing Israel’s figures for aid to Gaza, indicating food below subsistence levels
Despite stark images of skeletal Palestinians, the Israeli government and some of its allies have continued to insist that the hunger is the result of logistical problems, not a state policy. Last week Netanyahu said: “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza. There is no starvation in Gaza.”
Unicef is among multiple aid agencies to confirm that malnutrition and starvation have escalated since early March 2025 – when Israel unilaterally violated a ceasefire agreed after Donald Trump returned to the White House. Israel reinstated a total blockade after allowing some aid trucks in during the ceasefire, though UN agencies and charities on the ground said it was never enough to fully meet the needs of the starved, sick and weakened population.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an opaque logistics group backed by Israel and the Trump administration, began operations in May, with armed security provided by private contractors and the Israeli military. It was authorized to replace 400 UN distribution hubs with just four across Gaza, in response to unproven claims that international aid was being diverted by Hamas.
The UN and hundreds of aid groups condemned the move as a weaponization of aid that violated long-established humanitarian norms. On 1 June, Israeli soldiers killed 32 people at GHF sites, and since then more than 1,300 starving Palestinians have been killed trying to access food. Israel has long sought to discredit and weaken the UN and other international mechanisms including the courts, which it sees as hostile to its ongoing de facto annexation of Palestinian territories, accusing them of antisemitism.
“This is using aid not for humanitarian purposes, but to control populations, to move them, to humiliate and weaken people as part of their military tactics. The GHF is so frightening because it might be the new militarized dystopia of aid of the future,” Fakhri said.
In a statement, GHF rejected the reports of Palestinian deaths as “false and exaggerated statistics” and accused the UN of not doing enough. “If the UN and other groups would collaborate with us, we could end the starvation, desperation and violent incidents almost overnight. We could scale up, add more distribution sites and ramp up direct-to-community delivery which GHF is piloting now,” a spokesperson said.
The Israeli government did not respond to request for comment.
The deaths from starvation and aid-hub massacres come on top of at least 60,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs and tanks. Studies have concluded that the real death toll is almost certainly much higher, and Israel has continued to deny international researchers and journalists entry into Gaza.
Fakhri and other UN experts have repeatedly urged member states and corporations to act to stop the bombs and famine by cutting financial and military aid and trade with Israel, as well as broad-based economic and political sanctions.
“I see stronger political language, more condemnation, more plans proposed, but despite the change in rhetoric, we’re still in the phase of inaction. The politicians and corporations have no excuse, they’re really shameful. The fact that millions of people are mobilizing in growing numbers shows that everyone in the world understands how many different countries, corporations and individuals are culpable.”
Fakhri argues that in light of the US persistent vetoing of ceasefire resolutions at the UN security council, it is incumbent on the UN general assembly to call for peacekeepers to accompany humanitarian convoys into Gaza.
“They have the majority of votes, and most importantly, millions of people are demanding this. Ordinary people are trying to break through an illegal blockade to deliver humanitarian aid, to implement international law their governments are failing to do. Why else do we have peacekeepers if not to end genocide and prevent starvation?”
About 600 former Israeli security officials, including previous heads of the Mossad and the military, have urged Donald Trump to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza as the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, considers expanding the conflict.
In an open letter, the former officials said an end to the war was the only way to save hostages still held by Hamas.
“Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer prime minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: end the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering,” they wrote.
They added that they thought Hamas no longer posed a strategic threat to Israel.
The letter comes as pressure mounts for the Israeli government to end the war, even as Netanyahu considers intensifying the offensive. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Israel over the weekend after two videos were released of emaciated hostages held in Gaza.
One video in particular, which depicted a skeletal Evyatar David digging what he said could be his own grave, prompted a wave of outrage across Israel.
On Sunday night, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters released a statement that accused Netanyahu of “leading Israel and the kidnapped to doom”.
Netanyahu said on Monday he would convene his security cabinet this week to discuss how to instruct the military to meet his war goals in Gaza, with Israeli media reporting the prime minister was inclining towards expanding the offensive and seizing the entire Palestinian territory.
According to Israeli media, Netanyahu wants to try “pushing for the release of the hostages through decisive military victory”.
People take part in a protest in Tel Aviv against a background of an image of the emaciated Israeli hostage Evyatar David. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters
Intensifying military activity in the Palestinian territory would placate the far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s governing coalition, who have consistently advocated against a ceasefire.
The Israeli government is exploring the idea of intensified military operations as ceasefire negotiations seemed to have stalled – which it blames on Hamas. The US and Israel withdrew their negotiators from Doha 10 days ago and said they would explore “alternative options” to retrieve the hostages.
An expansion of the war would be contrary to what Trump’s Middle East envoy told the families of hostages over the weekend was the US position. Steve Witkoff said Washington was backing a comprehensive end to the Gaza war that would bring hostages home and assured the families that would not mean more fighting.
Displaced Palestinians collect food aid in Gaza City on Monday. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA
Any expansion of the conflict would risk worsening the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. A UN-affiliated humanitarian body said the territory was experiencing famine, as the approximately 2.1 million people who live there experience mass starvation.
Despite the announcement of expanded aid measures in Gaza, humanitarian groups say Israel is still not letting nearly enough aid into the territory. Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza and blames the UN for not distributing aid efficiently.
At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes in Gaza on Monday, in addition to five people who died of starvation, health authorities said. At least 10 of those who were killed were shot as they queued for food outside distribution centres run by the private US Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A nurse at al-Aqsa hospital was also killed when an airdropped pallet of aid fell on him in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. Another man was taken to the hospital after a crate of aid fell on his tent.
The World Health Organization announced it was delivering medicine and blood units to hospitals across Gaza – a rare delivery to bolster the Palestinian territory’s devastated healthcare system.
A bar chart show the number killed or injured while seeking aid in Gaza from 27 May to 2 August
Almost 61,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began. Israel launched the war in response to an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.
Families of the hostages rejected the idea of further fighting in Gaza, which they said on Sunday “endangers the lives of the kidnapped, who are already in immediate danger of death”.
The former Israeli security officials also warned against an expansion of the war, arguing that Israel had long since achieved its military objectives in Gaza.
“At first this war was a just war, a defensive war, but when we achieved all military objectives, this war ceased to be a just war,” Ami Ayalon, the former head of the Shin Bet security agency, said in a video on Sunday night. “This [war] is leading the state of Israel to the loss of its security and identity.”
A demonstration was also held outside the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem in protest against plans to sack Israel’s attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara. The government voted for her dismissal on Monday, despite the Israeli supreme court saying she should not be replaced until her term has ended.
Israelis protest against plans to sack the attorney general outside the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
In March, the Israeli justice minister started the process of firing the attorney general.
Baharav-Miara, who was appointed by the previous government, had come into conflict with Netanyahu on a number of issues including his indictments over allegations over bribery and fraud. The government has accused her of deliberately blocking its policy initiatives and for conducting politically motivated “witch-hunts”.
She has also made public statements against the undermining of the separation of powers, understood to be a response to Netanyahu’s controversial judicial overhaul.
Israel’s high court of justice issued an injunction against the government’s decision to dismiss the attorney general, leaving her in position for the time being. The government is expected to appeal against the decision to block the firing.
Israeli ministers have said they will stop inviting Baharav-Miara to hearings and committee meetings, regardless of the injunction.
The move to dismiss the attorney general has been widely criticised by opposition parties and rights monitors. The chair of the Democrats party, Yair Golan, accused the government of trying to fire Baharav-Miara to safeguard Netanyahu’s political interests.
“The agenda for the upcoming meeting: increased security for Netanyahu and his family and the dismissal of the attorney general,” Golan said in a post on X, alleging the prime minister did not care about the lives of Israeli hostages.
