Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
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
Israeli soldiers laugh as they bomb a mosque in Gaza.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact
Newschecker noticed that several users pointed out in the comments that the viral video was not recent and at least seven years old. We did a keyword search for “IDF soldiers laugh mosque bombing”, which did not throw up any credible news reports.
Newschecker then ran a reverse image search of keyframes of the video, which led us to this Youtube video, dated January 19, 2016, claiming that the Israel Defense Force bombed a mosque in Gaza. Although we could not independently verify the context of the video, we can clearly see that it predates the current Israel-Palestine conflict. A tweet by Shayan Sardarizadeh, a senior journalist at BBC Verify, confirms that the viral video is seven years old and not from the current conflict.
Also Read: Video Compilation Claiming To Show Recent Downpour In Dubai Is Old & Unrelated
Result: Missing Context
Source
Youtube video, January 19, 2016
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
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.
