Fact Check: Gory video of murder from Mexico shared as Hamas killing an Israeli
The video is reportedly from Mexico and has been on the Internet since 2020.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 23 Oct 2023 10:19 AM GMT
Screengrab of the post. (Source: X/@akshay_edd42848)
Hyderabad: A gory video of a masked man splicing a human alive and devouring his heart is going viral on social media. Those sharing the video claim that it shows Hamas militants killing an Israeli citizen.
An X user shared the (viewer discretion advised: the video contains disturbing imagery) video with the caption, “Hamas terrorist who took out the heart of an Israeli citizen and ate him alive. (sic)”
(Source: X/@akshay_edd42848)
Several X and Facebook users shared the video claiming the same. Click here, here and here for the posts.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the video is reportedly from Mexico and has been on the Internet since 2020.
Upon a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found it on X (viewer discretion advised: the video contains disturbing imagery), posted by a user in August 2020. The caption said that the video shows drug traffickers belonging to the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CGNG) performing cannibalism on a member of the rival Tepaltepec Cartel.
Taking this cue, we ran a keyword search and found screengrabs from the video in a report by the Mexican newspaper ‘El Sol de La Laguna’ published on August 24, 2020.
The report also said that the video shows an alleged Jalisco New Generation Cartel member removing and eating the heart of a drug trafficker from the Tepalcatepec Cartel. The report also mentioned that the incident reportedly occurred in a rural area of the state of Michoacan in Mexico.
Several other news websites reported the incident in 2020 with the same screengrabs and details. Click here, here and here for the reports.
Hence, we conclude that the video reportedly shows the war between two rival drug cartels in Mexico. The claim that it belongs to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict is false.
(With inputs from Fatabyyano — a Jordan-based Arab leading fact-check organisation.)
