Video game segment falsely shared as Hamas shooting down Israeli helicopters
- Published on October 11, 2023 at 11:14
- 3 min read
- By AFP Middle East & North Africa, AFP Africa
- Translation and adaptation Tendai DUBE
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The video shows two helicopters flying in close proximity before they are shot out of the sky.
“Israeli helicopters bombing Gaza got shot down...Israelis said 4 helicopters were downed,” reads an Instagram post published in Nigeria on October 8, 2023.
Another Instagram post published on the same day and shared in Africa with a similar caption, reads: “Palestinian fighters shot down 4 Israeli helicopters in Gaza.”
Some people who commented believed the footage depicted a genuine event but others wrote that it was a scene from ARMA 3.
ARMA 3 is a tactical shooter simulation video game that allows players to experience true combat gameplay (archived here).
Scenes from the game are commonly used in misleading claims linked to global conflicts, as shown in these AFP Fact Check debunks here, here and here.
Likewise, the purported chopper footage from Israel does not show real military helicopters and is in no way linked to the latest conflict in the region.
ARMA 3 game
Using a keyword search, AFP Fact Check found a video published on YouTube on October 3, 2023, days before Hamas militants infiltrated Israel, sparking another bout of violence (archived here).
The video’s caption reads: “Two combat helicopters shot down by anti aircraft defense - Arma (sic)”. It was published on a channel called Kazinkka Warrior, which features gameplay videos “created in the Arma 3 game editor” (archived here).
None of the videos “position themselves as a demonstration of real military operations”, the channel adds in its description section.
The video circulating on Instagram has been slightly cropped, but the similarities between the two versions are clear to see: a line of text that invites users to “Subscribe for More”, the helicopter flares, the ridgeline in the background, and the trees and bushes.
Israel-Gaza war
War broke out on October 7, 2023, following a surprise dawn attack launched from the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants who stormed Israel under a barrage of rocket fire.
As reported by AFP on October 11, 2023, more than 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side while the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to at least 900.
Despite extensive keyword searches, there have been no reports of Israeli combat helicopters shot down over Gaza during the latest conflict.
Arabic posts with the same video and similar claims were also debunked by AFP Fact Check.
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