Gaza famine, demonstration against Islamophobia: when real images are accused of being fake to discredit them

On at least two occasions this week, far-right internet users have challenged the authenticity of images that were, in fact, real, contributing to their discredit and disinformation.

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In True or False, there's regular talk of images generated by artificial intelligence being used to disinform. But on Friday, May 16, the opposite process is being discussed: casting doubt on images that are actually true in order to discredit them and disinform. The last few days have provided two examples of this process.

"There is no genocide and there is no famine in Gaza," insists former politician Bruno Attal on X. The far-right influencer, followed by more than 160,000 people, accuses the newspaper L'Humanité of having hijacked an image to make people believe that there is a famine in Gaza. The reason is the front page of the newspaper on Wednesday, May 14, which shows the photo of an extremely emaciated child, with bulging eyes, sunken cheeks, and skin over bones. "This child has cystic fibrosis," asserts Bruno Attal.

But the newspaper denies it. "The far right is accusing our newspaper of publishing a fake photo, documenting the use of hunger as a weapon of war in the Gaza Strip," writes co-editor Maud Vergnol on X. "This Gazan child does exist. His name is Osama El Rakab. He doesn't have enough to eat. To those hatemongers who don't want to face the truth, perhaps they will read this figure: 14,500 children have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war. That's more than the number of children killed in four years of wars around the world."

Humanity of May 14: Netanyahu, the starver of Gaza

📰 https://t.co/HlQqUuQ1TE pic.twitter.com/G5CLAm7yh6

And indeed, the child in question does exist, and even though he has cystic fibrosis, he is also suffering from hunger. Osama El Rakab, 5, is hospitalized in a department of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes that specifically treats patients suffering from malnutrition. He was photographed by two news agencies, AFP and then AP, on two separate occasions. L'Humanité used an AFP photo , taken on April 24. The photo caption explains that the child is "fighting for his life (…) because of bodily weakness linked to malnutrition."

AP, in turn, photographed him on May 1. The caption this time states that the boy's mother says that "her son's cystic fibrosis has worsened since the start of the war in Gaza due to the lack of meat, fish and enzyme supplements to help him digest food."

The agency states that he is hospitalized in "a clinic specializing in malnutrition" and also photographed his skeletal body. Other images taken at the same location on the same day show photos of young babies similarly affected by starvation.

This same process of disputing the authenticity of an image that is, however, true was applied the same week to a photograph shared on X by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. He posed behind a "Stop Racism" banner at the demonstration against Islamophobia on Sunday, May 11, in Paris. Behind him fluttered several flags: those of La France Insoumise, Palestine, and France.

Today in Paris, despite the invisibility, thousands and thousands are protesting against Islamophobia. pic.twitter.com/4M60LxT1rs

— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) May 11, 2025

Internet users, such as the far-right account Le Glaive , which spreads quite virulent anti-immigration rhetoric, claim that "none of the French flags in this image are real." According to the account, they were added using artificial intelligence. The accusations are based on online software that is supposed to detect modifications made by artificial intelligence.

However, this is false. French flags did indeed fly above the crowd during this demonstration. They were photographed by journalists, such as our colleagues at ICI Paris Île-de-France , formerly France Bleu, who covered the demonstration. According to France 24 , the artificial intelligence detection software may have been fooled by the fact that the Insoumis changed the brightness of the shared images to make the colors more vivid. This is a reminder that we must be wary of this software and not take what it says at face value.

These two examples clearly show that discrediting images allows for disinformation, in one case about the reality of what is happening in Gaza, and in the other about France Insoumise and the demonstrators against Islamophobia.

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