No end in sight to proliferation of false and misleading content linked to Israel-Hamas war
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 20, 2023 at 14:14
- 6 min read
- By Mary KULUNDU, AFP Kenya
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In most cases, the images and videos are months or even years old, or they portray tragedies from other parts of the world. This content is usually unrelated to the latest war in Israel and Gaza which is stoking regional tensions.
AFP Fact Check debunks some of the misleading information below:
Fake funeral
An Instagram account in Nigeria shared a video on October 11, 2023 claiming it showed Palestinians carrying the shrouded body of a child who was purportedly killed by an Israeli strike.
A few seconds into the footage, sirens start blaring, prompting the group to drop the stretcher and flee.
The person being transported then removes the covers and scampers.
Two years ago, the same video circulated online when Israeli forces and Palestinian militants entered a deadly confrontation sparked by unrest at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (archived report).
At the time, online posts claimed that the clip showed Palestinians staging a fake funeral in Gaza in a bid to gain world sympathy.
But AFP Fact Check found the video has circulated at least since March 2020 in unrelated posts about a Covid-19 lockdown stunt in Jordan.
According to news reports, the footage is of a group of young people who were trying to break a lockdown imposed to curb cases of Covid-19 (archived link).
Officers arrested
A day after Hamas’ incursion into Israel, this Facebook post from Ghana shared a video claiming to show Hamas fighters arresting Israel Defense Forces (IDF) generals.
The Islamist militants took about 200 hostages into Gaza (archived here) during their brazen attack.
The clip shows soldiers in military fatigues branded DTX escorting three handcuffed men from vehicles.
DTX is the state security service of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
An online search for the keywords "arrest in Azerbaijan by DTX" located a longer version of the video on DTX’s official YouTube channel (archived here) published on October 5, 2023 -- two days before Hamas attacked.
Those arrested were accused of "organising activities of illegal armed groups" in Karabakh, a breakaway enclave in Azerbaijan, the DTX said in a caption.
Our search also revealed this news report (archived here) from October 5, 2023, naming the detained suspects.
"Reasonable suspicion has also been established of the fact that the mentioned individuals are responsible for organising terrorist acts in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan," the story says.
Egyptian aid
On October 10, 2023, another Facebook post from Nigeria published an image of more than a dozen white trucks driving in convoy.
"In direct action against Israel, the Egyptian President orders a huge humanitarian convoy to Gaza," the caption reads.
In retaliation for the Hamas attack, Israel cut off water, food, electricity, and humanitarian aid to Gaza, affecting 2,3 million Palestinians.
AFP reported (archived here) on October 18, 2023, that truckloads of aid bound for the Gaza Strip from Egypt were blocked from reaching desperate civilians.
However, the image shared on Facebook is misleading and unrelated to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. In fact, it was taken almost a decade ago.
A reverse image search located reports with similar images taken by news agencies European Pressphoto and Associated Press (archived here and here).
According to the captions, the picture is of a Russian aid convoy transporting supplies for the people of Ukraine in August 2014.
AFP also reported about the aid convoy (archived report).
Israeli warplanes
Hours after Hamas crossed into Israel, this Facebook post from Nigeria shared a video showing military aircraft being transported on a public road.
A road sign indicates the direction of Arara and Arad, two towns in southern Israel.
"The Israeli army evacuates air bases approached by Al-Qassam elements in the Gaza Strip," the post reads.
But reverse image searches on multiple keyframes found the same clip was published in Telegram accounts weeks before Hamas attacked. A different video showed other military equipment being moved (archived here).
AFP Fact Check conducted a further keyword search on Telegram which revealed that the oldest version of the clip (archived here) was posted on September 13, 2023.
The caption indicated that the scene was filmed in southern Israel near Negev.
Protest video
This Facebook post from Nigeria shared a video of protests in Turkey on October 9, 2023.
The caption alleges that the video shows protesters in Istanbul chanting "Send Turkish soldiers to Gaza”, without providing further context about when the clip was taken.
The Israel-Gaza war has triggered a wave of protests in the Middle East and Turkey.
But the video in the misleading post was published (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter, on May 10, 2021.
According to the caption, it shows protesters demonstrating outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul.
News media at the time reported (archived link) that Turkish protesters took to the streets after violence between Palestinians and Israelis erupted over Jerusalem.
Find AFP Fact Check’s disinformation coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here.
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