Fact Check: Old video of Israeli soldier playing with Palestinian kid shared as recent

Hyderabad: With news of Israeli soldiers invading Gaza through land routes making rounds, a video of a soldier playing with a kid is going viral on social media. Those sharing the video claim it shows an Israeli soldier playing football with a Palestinian kid amid the ongoing war.

An X premium user, while sharing the video, wrote, “It's Difficult to Watch this Israeli Soldier and Palestinian Kid Play Football Knowing We're At War. Watch and retweet it. (sic)”

Several other X users have shared the video claiming the same.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video does show an Israeli soldier playing with a Palestinian kid. However, the video is from 2022.

Upon a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found the video on YouTube, uploaded by the verified channel of Hananya Naftali on October 16, 2022, titled ‘Israeli soldier playing soccer with a Palestinian kid in Hebron.’

It is to be noted that Naftali works for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In January this year, Naftali posted a video of Netanyahu blessing him and his wife on their wedding. In the video, Netanyahu could be heard saying that Naftali produces content for him.

We also found that Naftali had posted the viral video on X on October 16, 2022. “Israeli soldier playing soccer with a Palestinian kid in Hebron,” read the caption.

While skimming through Naftali’s social media, we found several videos and images posted in the past claiming to show Palestinian kids having fun with Israeli soldiers. Even amidst the ongoing war with Hamas, Nafatli has posted a video of children playing soccer and having fun with soldiers. Click here, here and here to view his posts.

It is evident that the viral video is from 2022. Hence, we conclude that the claim of an Israeli soldier playing football with a Palestinian kid amidst the current ongoing crisis is misleading.