Claim
Images showing worshippers with their hands tied up and laid on the ground by Israeli forces during raid on al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem
Fact
Image is from the April 2022 raid of the mosque by Israeli forces
An image showing a group of individuals lying face down on the ground with their hands bound behind their backs, has gone viral online, with claims that it depicts the recent Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque. The Israeli police reportedly carried out a second raid on the mosque on Wednesday, after the first raid earlier in the day resulted in the arrest of hundreds of Palestinians, despite condemnation from Arab and Muslim nations. CNN reported that the clashes occurred as Muslims observed Ramadan prayers and Jews celebrated Passover on Wednesday evening, and led to retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza militants. The photograph has been shared by verified Twitter accounts and media outlets covering the raid.
Mainstream news outlets, including the Khaleej Times and the Daily Mail UK, were also amongst those who shared the old image as recent.
The archived versions of the posts can be seen here, here and here.
Fact check
Newschecker ran a reverse image search of the photo, which led us to a Danish news report, dated April 29, 2022, stating that the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem was attacked by Israeli forces throughout Ramadan.
The report featured the viral photograph with a caption, “On April 22, numerous Palestinians were tied behind and laid on the floor of the holy al-Aqsa Mosque,” crediting it to one Rizwan Shafiqa. Similar reports on the raid can be seen here and here.
We also came across this tweet by Ramy Abdu, dated April 22, 2022, featuring the same viral photo. A further search led us to a video shared on April 15, 2022 by Al-Qastal News and Al-Jazeera Mubasher’s official Twitter handle, in which we can see people forced to lie facing down with their hands tied, inside the Al-Aqsa mosque.
Conclusion
An old image of the Israeli forces’ raid on a Jerusalem mosque in April 2022 is being falsely claimed as a photo of the recent incident.
Result: Partly False
Sources
Arbejderen.dk report, April 29, 2022
Tweet by RamAbdu, April 22, 2022
Tweets by Al Qastal and Al Jazeera Mubasher, April 15, 2022
This fact-check was first done for Newschecker Urdu by Mohammed Zakariya
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