Hajj Abdul Salam Al-Nuqla did not die

A video clip has been circulating on social media showing an elderly man fainting while waiting for food in the Gaza Strip amidst crowds of citizens. The claim is that the man died while waiting for his turn. The video was accompanied by the following text: “An elderly man from Gaza had been waiting for food for days and has passed away.”

Kashif verified the information and found it to be inaccurate. The man in the video is Abdul Salam Ismail Al-Naqla, and he is fine. Kashif was able to contact his eldest son, Hussein Al-Naqla, who said that his father is fine and was not martyred. He added: “My father, Abdul Salam, is 68 years old. He suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes. The video that went viral shows his father fainting while waiting inside the Nuseirat children’s hospice in Nuseirat camp. Due to extreme hunger, overcrowding, and illness, he fainted and was transferred to Al-Awda Hospital for treatment.”

Journalist Moatasem Adly, who filmed the video for Agence France-Presse on 17 July 2025, inside the Nuseirat Sons’ Hospice in the Nuseirat camp told Kashif that the video shows Hajj Abdul Salam Ismail Al-Naqla at the moment he fainted, amidst the crowds of people waiting for their turn to receive food inside the hospice. He added that the man was taken to Al-Awda Hospital, noting that he had monitored 51 cases of fainting due to hunger at Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat camp over the three days.

Since the outbreak of the aggression on 7 October 2023, the Gaza Strip has been suffering from a severe food crisis resulting from the blockade imposed by the Israeli occupation, restrictions on the entry of essential goods, and the destruction of agricultural and food infrastructure, bakeries, and warehouses. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a group of United Nations agencies and humanitarian organizations, stated that approximately 93% of Gaza’s population (about 1.95 million people out of a total population of 2.1 million) are facing levels of hunger that fall within emergency or food catastrophe levels.

Since 2 March 2025, with the continued closure of crossings and the denial of humanitarian aid, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has announced the deaths of 86 people, 76 of whom were children, as a result of malnutrition and hunger.