Video shows burning tree near Al Aqsa Mosque in 2021, not 'Israel setting fire to holy site'

"Israeli cruelly burns Al-Aqsa Mosque," reads Indonesian-language text superimposed on a TikTok video posted on October 25, 2023.

"No wonder it rained for a while on Tuesday night, October 24, 2023 in Bekasi," the text continues, referring to a city in Indonesia's West Java province. "The sky mourns."

The mosque in Jerusalem's Old City is the third-holiest site in Islam and is known as the Temple Mount to Jews, who revere it as their most sacred site.

Al-Aqsa has been a site of frequent clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians. In April, more than 350 people were arrested after clashes erupted inside the mosque.

The one-minute video, which has been viewed more than 369,000 times, shows a crowd in front of a large fire. A man filming himself in the video repeatedly shouts "God is the greatest" in Arabic as four loud bangs are heard in the background.

"They burned Al-Aqsa Mosque... they want to burn Al-Aqsa Mosque," he also says.

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Screenshot of the false post, captured on October 25, 2023

The video circulated after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering a war that has killed thousands of civilians on both sides.

The attack, the deadliest in Israel's history, saw gunmen storm across the border from Gaza, killing more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, and taking at least 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel retaliated with a relentless aerial bombardment that killed more than 10,800 people, many of them children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry on November 7, 2023.

The same video was shared on TikTok here, here, here and here, racking up more than 234,000 views in total.

It also appeared on Facebook here in a post from 2021 that claimed Al-Aqsa Mosque had been set on fire.

But reverse image and keyword searches show similar photos and videos circulated in reports of a tree catching fire during clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians at the mosque in 2021.

As of November 10, 2023, there have been no reports of Israel attacking the mosque since the outbreak of war.

Burning tree

A closer analysis of the video shared in the false posts found it in fact showed a tree on fire, rather than the mosque.

Keyword searches on Google led to a similar video published by video-licensing agency Storyful on May 11, 2021 (archived link). The footage, which is more than 22 minutes long, shows a flaming tree with people running around a compound, while four loud bangs are also heard in the background.

"A tree caught fire near Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Monday, May 10, as violent exchanges between worshippers and Israel Police left hundreds injured," the report that accompanies the video reads. "This footage was captured by the Palestinian network AlQastal on Monday night. According to reports, the fire was quickly put out and did not cause damage to the mosque."

In the Storyful clip, firefighters can also be seen putting out the blaze and the golden dome of Al-Aqsa Mosque is visible far in the background, untouched by the fire.

AFP reported that a huge fire engulfed trees in the compound housing the mosque on May 10, 2021, following nights of clashes between Israeli riot police and Palestinian worshippers. The clashes had started a few days earlier, on May 7, the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

There is no mention of Al-Aqsa Mosque itself being set on fire.

Further keyword searches and reverse image searches on Google led to similar photos of the tree on fire, posted by Suleiman Maswadeh, political correspondent of Israeli state-owned broadcaster Kan, here on X, formerly Twitter, on May 11, 2021 (archived link).

A report by Reuters news agency about the tree blaze said there was no damage to the mosque (archived link). It said witnesses "offered contradicting accounts of whether the flames were caused by Palestinians who had thrown fireworks at police or by a police stun grenade".

Below is a screenshot comparison of the genuine video from Storyful (left), the video in the false post (centre), and a photo from Maswadeh (right), with similarities marked by AFP:

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Screenshot comparison of the genuine video from Storyful (left), the video in the false post (centre), and a photo from Maswadeh (right)

A panorama created by stitching together stills from the falsely shared video corresponds to images of Al-Aqsa Mosque's compound seen on Google Street View (archived link).

Below is a comparison of the panorama created from frames of the falsely shared video (left) and the same location as seen on Google Street View (right):

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Comparison of the panorama created from frames of the falsely shared video (left) and the same location as seen on Google Street View (right)

AFP has debunked a wave of misinformation related to the Israel-Hamas war here.