In a video circulating online meant to convey the horrors of the war between Israel and Hamas, a small boy wails, his face caked in dust. Yet the boy’s cries actually rang out hundreds of miles away, in Syria, nearly a decade before Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza over the past three weeks. “It’s horrifying.”Among the popular images and videos supposedly illustrating the human toll of the war: A heap of dead children swaddled in white, described as Palestinians killed by Israeli forces. A teenage girl being beaten by a mob and fatally lit on fire, promoted as proof of the ruthlessness of Hamas. Mr. Katan worked for the Aleppo Media Center, a group of antigovernment activists and citizen journalists, and is now based in Germany.

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Persons: wails, sobs, ”, Elisa Massimino, “, Hosam Katan, Katan Organizations: Hamas, Israel, Human Rights, Georgetown University, Aleppo Media Locations: Israel, Gaza, Syria, ”, Tajikistan, Guatemala, Aleppo, Germany