She thought camera was a gun

This heart-rending photo of a little girl raising her hands in surrender after mistaking a camera for a gun has been shared by thousands online.

Re-posted at least 20,000 times, it was uploaded by a photojournalist in Gaza. But the photo was first published in Turkish newspaper Turkiye, and traced to Turkish photojournalist Osman Sagirli, said the BBC.

Mr Sagirli took the photo of four-year-old Hudea at a refugee camp in Syria last December. She had travelled to the Atmeh camp, near the Turkish border, with her mother and two siblings.

"I realised she was terrified after I took it, and looked at the picture, because she bit her lips and raised her hands," he told the BBC, adding that "normally, kids run away, hide their faces or smile when they see a camera".