Old photos falsely shared as recent 'anti-government protests' in Israel

The Facebook post, which was shared on October 16 claims Israelis have come out "against their government".

"500,000 people have protested against their government in Tel Aviv and accused it of worsening the situation," the Hindi-language caption says.

"Prior to this, several ministers and Jewish scholars criticised Israel."

The post shared two photos showing crowds, with superimposed text that says: "Gaza Breaking: Israelis take to the streets against Netanyahu" and "500,000 people on the streets in Tel Aviv."

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Screenshot of misleading post taken on October 20, 2023

Some social media posts also shared footage of a news report that it misleadingly claimed showed "hundreds of thousands" of people staging an anti-Netanyahu protest during the Israel-Hamas war.

The clip -- which was posted by social media users from India and Indonesia -- shows an aerial shot of a massive rally before switching to a journalist reporting from a street where crowds waving Israeli flags have gathered.

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Screenshot of the second misleading post, taken on November 24, 2023

Hamas fighters stormed across the border into Israel on October 7 at the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and carried out the deadliest attack since the country was created in 1948.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel since the attack was launched, according to Israeli authorities, who said more than 230 hostages were also seized during the attack.

In retaliation, Israel announced it would destroy Hamas and began a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The health ministry in Gaza told AFP on October 29 that more than 8,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict.

Hundreds of family members of the hostages held a rally in Tel Aviv on October 28 to demand Israeli authorities do more to free them.

However, the pictures in the misleading posts are not related to these protests.

Gaza hospital

The first picture in the misleading posts was taken outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City -- not Tel Aviv.

In the misleading post, a structure with a brown roof can be seen next to another structure with a blue roof in front of an arch. The same structures can be seen here in an AFP clip published on October 14.

"Palestinians wounded in Israeli air strikes on al-Shati camp arrive at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City," caption of the AFP video reads.

AFP cannot independently verify the content of the picture.

Below is a comparison of the two structures as seen in the misleading post (left) and in the AFP video (right), with similarities highlighted:

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Comparison of the two structures as seen in the misleading post (left) and in the AFP video (right)

The BBC also published a picture on October 25 that it says shows Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, showing the same features (archived link).

Rally against judicial reform

The second photo in the first misleading post, and the first clip in the misleading video posts, were taken in Tel Aviv -- but in March.

The picture matches a scene at the 0:26 timestamp in a video published by UK-based paper The Telegraph on its YouTube channel on March 12, 2023 (archived link).

The 1:18-long video is titled "Israel's 'biggest ever' protests as Netanyahu govt persists with reforms" and shows a protest held in Israel's Tel Aviv on March 11.

"Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets to protest against the government's judicial reforms," text in the video reads. "Organisers estimate 500,000 people attended the demonstration."

Below is a screenshot comparison of footage from the video in misleading posts (left) and the original video uploaded on The Telegraph's YouTube channel (right):

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Screenshot comparison of footage from the video in misleading posts (left) and the original video uploaded on The Telegraph channel (right)

Protesters demonstrated across Israel on March 11 as part of months-long protests against government judicial reform plans.

"The judicial overhaul is a cornerstone of Netanyahu's administration, an alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jewish and extreme-right parties which took office in late December," AFP reported.

"The biggest demonstration, in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, drew some 100,000 protesters, according to estimates given by Israeli media."

The bill was eventually passed despite widespread protests.

Hostage protests

The second clip was taken from an ABC News report about Israelis who gathered to demand the government do more to secure the release of hostages seized by Hamas in the October 7 attack (archived link).

At the 40-second mark of the ABC News video, the reporter Matt Gutman says that "hundreds" of people had gathered outside the defence ministry.

According to the Times of Israel, the demonstrators gathered outside the Israeli defence ministry to support Avihai Brodetz, whose wife and children were taken hostage (archived link).

Israeli daily Haaretz reported that while Brodetz insisted his vigil was not political, he was later joined by crowds "condemning the government" (archived link).

AFP has not found reports of a protest attended by some 500,000 people since Hamas launched the attack on October 7 as claimed in the misleading post.

AFP has debunked other misinformation around the Israel-Hamas conflict here.

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