A video circulating on social media falsely claiming to depict Israeli soldiers being struck by a missile amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict has been debunked. India TV Fact Check reveals that the video, dating back to 2016, actually shows members of the Syrian armed forces being hit by a missile while engaged in combat against opposition forces near Aleppo.
Ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, launched an unexpected attack on Israeli border towns on October 7, resulting in the reported deaths of over 1,400 Israelis. In retaliation, Israel conducted airstrikes on Gaza. According to the Palestinian health ministry, the conflict has led to the tragic loss of at least 4,469 Palestinian lives.
Screenshot of misleading video was shared on social media platforms with the caption, "Large crowd of #israel soldiers gets hit by a missile."
False caption sparks debunking
The misleading video was shared on social media platforms with the caption, "Large crowd of #israel soldiers gets hit by a missile." India TV Fact Check took a closer look at the video, breaking it down into its keyframes and conducting a reverse image search on several of them. This investigation led to the discovery that the same video was uploaded to Facebook over seven years ago, on August 19, 2016, with an Arabic caption translating to, "Eyewitness #Aleppo || Two groups of Assad forces were targeted in the vicinity of the Air College with two guided missiles."
Screenshot of news article by Al Jazeera, published on August 19, 2016.
Verification through news article
Subsequently, a keyword search on Google revealed a news article by Al Jazeera, published on August 19, 2016, which featured a longer version of the viral video. The article, titled "The Opposition Repels a Regime Attack in Aleppo and Welcomes the Truce" in Arabic, provided details about an attempt by the Syrian Armed Forces to storm the Air Technical College in the Ramousah area, south of Aleppo. The report clarified that the video showed the targeted killing of members of the Syrian Armed Forces by Fatah Halab Operations Room, an armed faction of Syrian rebel groups.
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