Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
Devastating bomb attack by Israeli troops on Hamas militants
Fact
The video is at least four years old and is from Syria, and has no connection with the recent Israel-Palestine Conflict.
Various fake claims and old videos have gone viral on social media in the wake of the Hamas militant group’s recent attack on Israel. Meanwhile a video, showing an armed man recording a video from a moving vehicle while an explosion occurs in the background, is going viral on X and Facebook. Users sharing the video claim that it showed an attack by Israel on Hamas militants. The post can be viewed by clicking here.
This video has been shared by several users on X with the same claim. They can be viewed by clicking here, here and here.
Fact Check / Verification
In order to ascertain the fact of the viral video, we conducted a Yandex reverse image search. During this process, we came across several web pages which carried the viral video. One such report in an Arabic language publication Mz-Mz.net published on March 4, 2019, revealed that the video was from Syria. “The moment the bodies of Assad militia members were scattered after an explosion targeted a military convoy,” reads the title of the report and goes on to say that the incident was recorded in the Deir ez-Zor desert in Syria.The webpage also carried a YouTube post of the same video embedded on it.
We also found another YouTube post of the same video, on January 8, 2020, with the caption “The Most Powerful Selfie for the Syrian army and a gift from the Mujahideen.”
During our search, we also found the video uploaded on a website called Funker.com two years ago. The description of this video reads “Fighter Records His Buddies Hitting A Huge IED During Selfie Video. A fighter in Syria was taking a selfie video of his convoy, when the vehicle directly behind him hit an IED, which completely destroyed the vehicle.”
During our research, we also found that the video has been the subject of misinformation earlier as well, with users falsely claiming that it showed the Turkish Armed Forces during operation peace sping that started in October 2019, which, was found to be untrue.
Conclusion
Our investigation reveals that the viral video is not recent and is at least 4 years old, and has been available on the internet since 2019. The video is not related to the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Result: False
Our Sources:
1. Report published by gazeteduvar.com, dated 27 September, 2020
2. Video published by Funker.com
3. X Post by @cutedikshaji, dated 9th October, 2023
Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
