Fact Check: Old video of Lebanese protesting at Israel border falsely linked to Israel-Hamas conflict

Hyderabad: A video showing hundreds of people holding Palestinian and Syrian Social Nationalist Party flags climbing a concrete boundary wall is viral on social media.

Those sharing the video suggest that the video shows the Lebanese crossing into Israel to help their Muslim brethren fight against Jewish people in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

An X premium user shared the video with the caption, “From Lebanon this morning, trying to break down the barrier into Israel. They still believe that the final battle against the Jews has come. (sic)”

A verified X handle, Israel War Room, also shared the video claiming the same. The post was deleted at the time of writing this article. Click here to access the archive of the post.

Suresh Chavhanke, the editor-in-chief of the right-leaning Sudarshan News, also shared the video claiming the same.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the viral video is two years old and has no link to ongoing conflict.

A reverse image search of the keyframes of the video took us to the video posted on X by a user on May 16, 2021.

We also found a longer version of the video on YouTube, uploaded on May 20, 2021. The availability of the video on two different platforms since 2021 confirms that it is not from the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

A Palestinian news outlet, Quds News Network, on May 16, 2021, posted images on X, which shows visuals similar to the viral video.

“Hundreds of Lebanese protesters climb the Israeli concrete barrier along the Lebanon-occupied Palestine border and try to infiltrate into occupied Palestine to clash with Israeli occupation army in protest of the Israeli aggression on Gaza,” read the post’s caption.

We also found similar images published by Reuters on May 15, 2021. The title read, “Demonstrators climb a border wall and hold flags during a protest to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, in Adaisseh village near the Lebanese-Israeli border, southern Lebanon, May 15, 2021.”

Hence, we conclude that the viral video is from 2021 and is being falsely linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.