In late August 2025, a rumor spread online that Israeli soldiers had written the names of two pro-Palestinian celebrities from the United States — singer Billie Eilish and actor Mark Ruffalo — on bombs headed for Gaza.
The claim spread on Instagram, X, Facebook and Reddit alongside an image purporting to show the bombs.
The image above originated from the social media accounts of Haim Gozali, an Israeli MMA fighter and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) veteran who often spews hateful and violent rhetoric against Palestinians, Muslims and Arab people. Gozali has a history of posting pictures of people's names on weapons purportedly heading for Gaza in response to views he disagrees with. For example, Gozali has targeted everyone from actor Andrew Garfield, who spoke out in support of Palestine, to Kanye West, a rapper known for promoting anti-semitism.
The artillery in the picture appeared to be Israeli smoke projectiles. However, Gozali and the IDF did not return an inquiry for more information about these pictures, leaving much unclear as of this writing. For example, it was not possible to determine whether Gozali still has formal ties to the IDF, nor whether he or another person wrote on the weapons.
The weapons also could have ultimately ended up somewhere other than Gaza, as Israel's conflicts have expanded beyond Gaza since Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, first attacked the country and captured hostages on Oct. 7, 2023, leading to Israel's sweeping retaliation.
As such, we have not rated this claim.
Gozali first posted a picture on X of Eilish and Ruffalo's names on the artillery in March 2024, shortly after Eilish and Ruffalo wore red "Artists4Ceasefire" pins at the 2024 Academy Awards. Artists4Ceasefire is a "collective of artists and advocates" calling for an "immediate and permanent ceasefire, the return of all hostages, and the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to the civilians of Gaza." Gozali's original post also targeted Jonathan Glazer, a Jewish filmmaker who used his Oscar acceptance speech to condemn Israel's war in
(X)
After posts about the pictures gained traction in August 2025, Gozali again promoted the pictures alongside videos of the artillery in question. "Once again they made me a star in the world," Gozali wrote in Hebrew on Telegram, according to the app's translation service, in response to one popular post. He added rat emojis, which he has previously used to dehumanize Arab, Muslim and Palestinian people.
The pictures posted by Gozali also showed that someone scrawled "UH99" on the artillery, an apparent reference to an Israeli
The markings on the artillery appeared to match the labels of smoke canisters used by the Israeli military, based on Snopes' previous reporting and pictures of the smoke projectile available on Collective Awareness to Unexploded Ordnance, which maintains a database of explosive hazards obtained from open source information.
The labels on the artillery in the picture Gozali posted matched with publicly available pictures of Israeli 155mm M150 smoke projectiles. (CAT-UXO/Elbit Systems/Haim Gozali)
These 155mm M150 projectiles deploy smoke screens, which aim to mask the movement or location of military units. However, the projectiles are still inherently dangerous, even if their stated purpose
These projectiles use hexachloroethane smoke, or HC smoke, which a U.S. Army chemist called "highly toxic" in a 2012 news release. A 1994 study by the U.S. Army Biomedical Research and Development Laboratory found "exposure of unprotected soldiers to high concentrations of HC smoke for even a few minutes has resulted in injuries and fatalities."