The investigation, which was conducted in collaboration with Sky News’ data and forensics unit, identified 17 incidents from the first month of the war – which broke out last October – in which the footage released by the IDF corresponded with the location of where Airwars had documented civilians being harmed.
Just from these 17 clips, over 400 Palestinian civilians, including more than 200 children, were reported to have been killed, Airwars said.
Airwars added the footage shows how the IDF’s bombing campaign has caused “unprecedented rates of civilian harm”.
Commenting on the investigation, Emily Tripp, Airwars’ director, said: “The Israeli military has shared hundreds of videos of their own strikes on social media in Gaza – grainy black and white clips with few details but captions declaring they were striking Hamas targets. The message they wanted the world to see was one of a precise campaign, a controlled narrative of careful and calculated warfare.”
“But by locating these clips and matching them to civilian harm allegations we uncovered a different story. Even in the strikes the Israeli military itself published footage of – the ones it chose to show the world – we found hundreds of civilians killed. This is yet more evidence that the practices of the Israeli military are leading to unprecedented levels of civilian harm,” she added.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last year, despite a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
More than 42,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 97,700 others injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.
