Fact Check: Old video of clash between Israeli forces and Palestinians shared as recent event

Hyderabad: A video showing masked men firing bullets, pelting stones and burning tyres to stop what seems like army vehicles from entering their area is being shared on social media, with users claiming that the video shows the Israeli military invading Gaza and doing a war crime during a ground operation.

The video is being shared in light of the reported ground invasion of Gaza by Israel.

A Facebook user shared the video with the caption, “Israeli military are conducting a war crime on the ground operation in Gaza they’re doing exactly what Hitler did to them. Please share it before they take it out of social media as they control the social media. Let It Go Very Viral… (sic)”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video indeed shows a clash between Israeli forces and Palestinians but is from the West Bank, not Gaza and can be traced to July 2023, before the recent escalation between the two forces.

Upon a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found the video on Instagram, posted by the verified account, eye.on.palestine, on July 7.

The caption stated that the video shows a raid by the Israeli forces in Jenin City in the West Bank.

The account credited the video to journalist Hisham Abu Shaqrah. Taking this cue, we checked his Instagram account and found the video posted on the same date. He also mentioned that the video shows the clash in Jenin City.

We also noticed the logo of Daily Mail in the video. With this cue, we ran a keyword search on the YouTube channel of the media outlet and found the video, published on July 5, 2023, titled ‘Israeli forces in gun battle with Palestinians in West Bank as death toll keeps climbing.’

“Israeli attacks on the West Bank city of Jenin have so far killed 12 Palestinians, the Palestinian Health Ministry said late Tuesday. Nearly 120 others, with 20 of them in serious condition, were injured in the attacks, the ministry said in a written statement,” read the video’s description.

Hence, we conclude that the video is not from Gaza and is not from the ongoing battle between Israel and Hamas. The claim is misleading.