Pallywood refers to the staging, distortion, exaggeration, or outright fabrication of events — partially or completely — in order to inflate, manipulate, or misrepresent a situation that occurred, or sometimes never occurred at all.

The term primarily refers to propaganda produced by Hamas, other Palestinian factions, and individuals who follow or imitate these practices — whether for material gain, ideological reasons, or as part of a media culture that has developed in their environment, not always through individual fault.

Researchers and originators of the term consistently emphasize two points at once:

• Palestinian suffering is real and significant.
• A large amount of content circulating on social media — and at times reaching mainstream news outlets — is exaggerated, partially false, or entirely fabricated.

According to proponents of the term, the existence of real suffering in Gaza does not contradict the claim that Hamas operates a large-scale and deceptive propaganda apparatus.

This stands in contrast to critics of the term, who argue that while Hamas propaganda exists, “Pallywood” itself does not — a distinction that researchers of the phenomenon consider logically inconsistent.

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Common Forms of “Pallywood” Deception

“Pallywood” is used to describe a wide range of alleged manipulative practices, including (but not limited to):

• Presenting disasters from other countries as if they occurred in Gaza
• Using sick children and portraying them as deliberately starved by Israel
• Photoshop manipulation of many kinds:
• • Adding smiles to frightened terrorists
  • Adding blood, wounds, amputations, smoke, or altered backgrounds
  • Removing visible weapons
• Presenting Hamas militants as journalists or civilians
• Reducing the reported ages of militants to classify them as “children”
• Inflating or altering casualty figures
• Reusing the same victims — by body or by name — multiple times
• Placing wounded children on hospital floors for filming instead of treatment
• Staging children screaming, crying, or banging pots despite not being in such a physical state
• Adding theatrical drama after IDF strikes, even when strikes did occur
• Presenting Hamas-caused casualties as Israeli-caused casualties
• Presenting self-inflicted accidents as Israeli attacks
• Fake injuries using prosthetics, makeup, fake blood, burn or amputation makeup
• Fake crying and staged screaming
• Fake fundraising campaigns
• Reenacting real events or staging events that never happened
• Directing children to cry, scream, or appear shocked on cue
• Staging civilian evacuations solely for filming
• Scripted chants and timed slogans, often delivered by children
• • Examples:
  • • “Where is the world?!”
    • “I call on Netanyahu…”
• Fabricating scenes of Israeli soldiers fleeing, surrendering, or being harmed
• Staging and exploiting Jewish hostages for propaganda ceremonies
• Lavish Hamas “victory” ceremonies during military low points using unused uniforms
• Using hostage bodies for propaganda
• Dramatic “resuscitation” attempts on dead individuals
• Misleading claims that hostage bodies are inside bags when they are not
• Role-playing “mourners” who are not relatives
• Removing men or militants from the frame, leaving only women, children, or elderly
• Arranging bodies or wounded individuals to maximize emotional impact
• Reusing the same “wounded person” in multiple scenes
• Moving the same body between locations or using old bodies
• Presenting living people as dead
• Omitting critical context, such as reporting “children were hit” while concealing that an IDF strike targeted a Hamas rocket cache
• Using pyrotechnics, fake smoke, and staged explosions
• AI-generated images or videos depicting suffering or attacks
• Deepfake audio or manipulated voiceovers
• Altered or misleading subtitles
• Use of silicone props, masks, and medical mannequins
• Use of medical skeletons or prop bones
• Recycling old footage from previous conflicts as current
• Removing local identifiers to disguise military sites as civilian ones
• Presenting Hamas rocket misfires as Israeli strikes
• Presenting secondary damage as intentional targeting
• Cropping footage to remove critical moments
• Omitting before/after context
• Using fake sound effects and audio loops
• Image-based propaganda campaigns with fabricated visuals
• Statistics with no sources
• Anonymous or unverifiable “witnesses”
• Manipulating doctors into giving misleading statements
• Prior knowledge of an event and pre-positioning cameras to “capture” it
• Placing dolls or teddy bears at bomb sites for emotional effect
• Eating sand, grass, or “cooking stones” to simulate famine
• Unnecessary IVs, bandages, or blood draws to heighten drama
• Exaggerated physical acting to simulate extreme injury
• And more

It is important to note that proponents of the term argue that many of the above examples are supported by documented evidence, though individual claims remain disputed in many cases.

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Why This Matters

According to researchers and advocates of the “Pallywood” concept, this type of propaganda may appear to help Palestinians externally, but ultimately harms them internally.

They argue that by concealing, denying, or defending manipulative propaganda practices, Hamas gains effective immunity in its exploitation of civilian suffering. In their view, this encourages continued manipulation, deepens misery, and prioritizes visually dramatic suffering over genuine civilian welfare — serving leadership structures that benefit politically and financially from ongoing conflict.

From this perspective, assisting, excusing, or denying these propaganda practices contributes to prolonging Palestinian suffering rather than alleviating it.

In short:

“Lies have no legs.”

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Clarifying Examples

The distinction, according to researchers of the term, is not necessarily whether an event occurred — but how it is presented.

Examples often given include:

• If the IDF strikes a building used by Hamas and Gazan journalists present wounded militants as civilians — this is described as “Pallywood.”
• If the IDF strikes such a building and journalists stage civilian victims by adding dust, directing screams, or choreographing reactions — this is described as “Pallywood.”
• If civilians are harmed during such a strike and journalists claim Israel deliberately targeted civilians rather than Hamas infrastructure — this is described as “Pallywood.”
• Even if a legitimate strike occurred, directing an unrelated woman to scream, slap herself, or perform grief specifically for the camera is described as “Pallywood.”

The strike itself is not what proponents label “Pallywood”; rather, the allegedly staged or manipulated portrayal surrounding it is.