AI Images of Suffering Gazans Spark Fury

Gaza's displacement camps are now battling wintery rains and cold. Heavy rains since late November have reportedly damaged shelters and left Palestinians wading through a miserable mix of floodwater and sewage. Aid groups like Save the Children and the IRC are scrambling with tarps, sandbags, and cash-for-work crews, but they're screaming for winterized homes and the second phase of the ceasefire to fix this mess properly.

But hold the sympathy: social media is now awash with what can only be described as hilariously botched AI-generated "flood pics" that wouldn't fool a toddler with a crayon. We're talking viral images of wide-eyed kids in tent-puddles, complete with extra fingers sprouting like alien appendages, water that defies gravity (hello, breakdancing waves in freezing floods?), and sneaky watermarks from tools like Midjourney or MindVideo peeking out like a bad tattoo cover-up.

One gem shows a child grabbing shoes in muck, but zoom in and you see watermark and hands that look like they were designed by a drunk octopus. Skeptics are cackling over these pixelated phonies, calling them "engineered empathy bait," cropped to hide dry backgrounds, slapped with dramatic captions, and timed to ignore balmy 25°C days or the fact that, yes, it does rain in Gaza, but not apocalypse-style.

The sad truth is that after all of the glaring propaganda the world has seen since October 7th, they aren't even discerning anymore - they just gobble up whatever they see on X or Instagram as if it was the Gospel truth.

This makes propagandists' work easier and easier, because in 2025, hating on Israel is a social norm.