Although many real images and reports of what happened emerged, they were mixed with other content with false claims, using and manipulating videos of other events.
Among fabrications and misrepresentations, a lot of “fake news” and disinformation was shared: the news about the kidnapping of an Israeli commander was false, as was the White House memo in which US President Joe Biden announced support of thousands of millions of dollars to Israel.
The fakes also include old videos of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and even images from a movie as if they were real.
The Associated Press has verified several cases and concluded they were disinformation.
No. The video, which is widely shared on social media, was fabricated, officials from the BBC and Bellingcat, an investigative website cited as the alleged source, confirmed.
The images, featuring a distinctive BBC logo, were intended to depict a BBC news story featuring a recent Bellingcat report on Ukraine’s arms supply to Hamas.
“Bellingcat: the failure of the Ukrainian military offensive and the Hamas attack are related,” reads the text of the video, which has more than 2,500 reactions and 110,000 views on the Telegram network. “Palestinians bought firearms, ammunition, drones and other weapons,” it further claims.
“We have not reached any such conclusions or made any such statements,” Bellingcat officials wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) with screenshots of the false report. “We would like to emphasize that this is an invention and it should be treated as such,” he further asserted.
Eliot Higgins, founder of the Amsterdam-based organization, noted in another post on X that these accusations were amplified by Russian social media users.
The BBC did not respond to emails seeking comment on the case, but Shayan Sardarizadeh, a fact-checking reporter, confirmed in a post on X that the video is fake.
It’s fake. Church officials confirmed Thursday that the building remained intact even after the bombing, but reports circulating on social media falsely claimed that the Christian temple, located in the al-Zaytun section of Gaza’s Old City, was the target of the attack .
“Israel just blew up the third oldest church in the world,” one Instagram user wrote, adding: “The Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyry in Gaza was 1,616 years old.” The AP’s conclusion is that these accusations are false.
The video comes from behind-the-scenes footage of the film “Empty Place,” a short film that focuses on the story of Ahmad Manasra, a Palestinian arrested in 2015 at the age of 13, accused of stabbing two Israelis.
Social media users on both sides of the war – Israel and Hamas – are sharing the video, both falsely claiming it is evidence that the other side is making propaganda.
In the video, a young man lies on a sidewalk covered in blood, with his right leg bent backwards, but it is the recording of a short film. A film crew appears around the actor in the images. Other actors walk around dressed as soldiers and in the clothes that many Orthodox Jews wear.
“Watch the Israelis making fake videos saying ‘Palestinian freedom fighters killed children,’” reads a tweet that had received more than 5,600 likes and been shared 4,400 times as of Wednesday.
An Instagram post claimed otherwise: “These terrorists dress up as JEWISH soldiers to make fake videos about Israeli soldiers! False propaganda!”
But neither statement is correct. After all, the video shows footage from the 2022 short film, directed by Awni Eshtaiwe, a filmmaker based in the West Bank.
No. The image of a memo, shared widely on social media, was fabricated: Biden never made such an announcement, the White House confirmed Monday.
A doctored image of the memo was shared on social media days after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
The alleged memo is formatted to imitate an executive order, as published on the White House website, with the blue and white White House logo at the top and Biden’s name at the bottom.
“Biden signs order to send $8 billion in military aid to Israel,” wrote one user who shared the alleged memo on X (formerly Twitter).
The memo is apparently a forged version of an executive order from Biden to provide military aid to Ukraine in the summer of 2023.
It’s fake. Although Hamas has used paragliders to transport fighters across the border between Gaza and southern Israel, this footage has been online since at least September and shows men in parachutes, yes, but on a sports field in Cairo, Egypt.
“Hamas paraglided among Israeli civilians and began slaughtering them,” the text of the video reads. The video, posted on TikTok, has been viewed more than 38,000 times. But in reality, it has been ‘online’ since at least September 27, when it was posted to TikTok with the location tag ‘Egypt’.
Details in the video point to Egypt as the location. The footage shows a person dressed in a blue shirt with the text “El Nasr SC” on the back, the name of a club in Cairo. And in the video, the crowd doesn’t seem alarmed by the arrival of the paratroopers, as you might expect if this were an invading force. Many women and children are seen running towards them, cellphones in hand, taking videos and photos of the aerial display.
No. Both videos circulating on the Internet are months old and Putin appears to be talking about the war between Russia and Ukraine and not the conflict in the Middle East. The subtitles are fake.
“America wants to destroy Israel like we destroyed Ukraine in the past,” reads the caption of one of the videos. “I warn America: Russia will help Palestine and America can do nothing.” A TikTok post sharing the video had about 11,600 views until a few days ago.
The caption of another Putin video, filmed in a different location, reads the same: “I warn America to stay away from the war between Palestine and Israel.” But the two videos date from long before the last war between Israel and Hamas and make no reference to Israel.
Source: DN
