Video of West Bank fighting does not show a Doctors Without Borders medic giving a man a rifle
CLAIM: A video shows a Doctors Without Borders medic in the West Bank city of Jenin take an assault rifle from a man lying on the ground and hand it to a man nearby who begins shooting.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The man identified as a medic in the video does not belong to Doctors Without Borders, a spokesperson for the organization told The Associated Press. The international medical group works only in hospitals in that area. In addition, the man is wearing a vest that matches those worn by members of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.
THE FACTS: As fighting erupts on the West Bank amid the latest Israel-Hamas war, a video of shooting on the streets of Jenin is being falsely represented as showing that a worker with the international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders was involved.
The man in the video wears an orange vest with the letters “PMRS” below a yellow circle. Amid gunfire he runs to a man lying facedown on a city street as people shout and gunfire is heard around them. He takes an assault rifle from the man, runs a few feet and hands it to another man who begins firing as the man in the orange vest takes cover.
“In this video taken today in Jenin, a medic from ‘Doctors without borders’ went to a terrorist who was shot by the IDF, lifted him up and took his weapon then brought it to another terrorist,” reads one Instagram post. “Basically he abused his position as a medic, which the IDF cannot shoot, to break the law and assist terrorists to get a weapon.”
The post had received more than 8,000 likes as of Friday.
But the man in the orange vest does not work for Doctors Without Borders, known in French as Médecins Sans Frontières.
“The person depicted in the video is clearly not wearing an MSF logo or any other identification related to MSF,” Brienne Prusak, a spokesperson for the organization, told the AP in an email. “MSF staff do not wear orange vests seen in the video. Our staff around the world are required to wear MSF identification (T-shirt, gear) because it is one of the main protections that we have: our medical identity and credibility.”
Indeed, the man’s vest matches those worn by members of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, which works in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. A photo on the group’s Facebook page shows a worker wearing the same type of vest, which is clearly marked with PMRS’ logo. In contrast, a photo on the Doctors Without Borders website shows members of its staff wearing white vests with the organization’s red and white logo on the back.
It is not clear whether the man in the video actually works for PMRS or if he is simply wearing one of the group’s vests. PMRS did not respond to a request for comment.
Doctors Without Borders does not work in areas of Jenin where the video spreading online was filmed, according to Prusak.
The fighting occurred on a street outside a Western Union office and a bakery with a white awning. The same shops can be seen in a video tour of Jenin posted to YouTube in 2020. They appear on the left side of the video around the 5:08 mark.
“In Jenin, MSF supports the emergency room of the Ministry of Health Hospital and supports the pre-hospital emergency,” Prusak wrote. “Our MSF staff in Jenin do not carry out ambulatory services. We do not treat people outside in the streets.”
She added that the misrepresented video “incites violence and poses a severe threat not only against MSF staff but all humanitarian workers in the region.”
Violence in the West Bank, including Jenin, has surged amid fighting in the latest Israel-Hamas war that began seven weeks ago. The conflict has quickly become the deadliest and most destructive war fought between the sides since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 from the Palestinian Authority.
___
This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.