Several social media users shared claims that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) added a black stripe to its social media accounts profile pictures mourning the recent killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza. This is false. The relief and human development agency says it added a black ribbon to its logo on social media after 20 of its team members were killed in Gaza on Oct. 22 of last year, and archives of the group's social media profile show the ribbon's presence before Sinwar's death.
An , formerly known as Twitter, shared an image containing a group of screenshots of UNRWA social media account photos with a black band over its logo. The photo has writing that reads "UNRWA Twitter accounts add black strip to profile after Sinwar's elimination."
The claim was repeated by Ìý on , and .
Rating: False
Hamas leader Sinwar, one of the chief architects of the attack on Israel last October, was killed during an Israeli military operation in Gaza on Oct. 16.
said in an the black ribbon was added to the agency's logo on social media on Oct. 22, 2023 to pay tribute to 20 of its team members who were killed in Gaza.
"To pay a symbolic tribute, we added a black ribbon to our logo on social media," she said.
"We’ve kept it since as the death toll continued. Today, 230 team members killed: friends and colleagues."
A search of the agency’s official social media accounts on internet archiving tools show these accounts have had a black band on their logos since October of last year.
An Oct. 22, 2023 post on the agency's official X account that was about 13 hours later on internet archiving tool Archive.today shows a black band over the corner of its logo.
"We are in shock and mourning. It is now confirmed that 29 of our colleagues in Gaza have been killed since October 7. Half of these colleagues were UNRWA teachers," the post reads.
"As an Agency, we are devastated. We are grieving with each other and with the families."
Other posts that were archived on ; ; ; and also show a black strip over its logo.
Similarly, archives from this past year of UNRWA's affiliated X pages and , which were included in some of the images accompanying the claim, show the black ribbon on the logo.
Sources
Claim can be can be found on X (), (), (), and (), on Facebook () and Instagram ()
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An Oct. 22, 2023 UNRWA post
UNRWA's X account archived on ; ; and
UNRWA's affiliated X pages @UNRWAes and @UNRWAarabic archived on and
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