Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Video game trailer falsely shared as 'Hamas attack on Israeli tank'

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on November 16, 2023 at 10:16
  • Updated on November 16, 2023 at 10:20
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP Pakistan

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Tanks have poured into the Palestinian territory of Gaza as part of a ground incursion by Israel in a bloody war with Hamas militants. Footage circulating online that appears to show a tank being blown up, however, is unrelated to the conflict, which was triggered by an unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel. The video was in fact taken from the trailer of a video game called Squad.

The nine-second clip shows a tank being hit by a projectile and bursting into flames. A soldier walking nearby is thrown to the ground by the impact of the blast.

It was shared in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on November 1 that has attracted more than 415,000 views.

"The scene of the destruction of an Israeli tank in a Hamas attack," the post says in Urdu.

A screenshot of the false X post, taken on November 3, 2023

The footage was widely shared in similar posts falsely linking it to the Israel-Hamas war, including here, here and here on X, and here, here and here on Facebook.

Hamas gunmen launched an attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing about 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israel retaliated with an aerial bombardment of the Palestinian territory that has killed more than 11,500 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Tanks and soldiers have also launched a ground offensive.

However, a reverse image search along with keyword searches traced the video of the tank explosion to a trailer for shooter game Squad.

The trailer, posted to Squad's official YouTube channel on December 7, 2022, is titled: "Squad: Red Star Rising Update Trailer."

The clip shared in posts falsely linking it to the Israel-Hamas war starts at the 0:07 mark in the trailer (archived link).

The trailer's description mentions an update to the game called "4.0", which the developer announced in November 2022.

US video game and entertainment media website IGN also shared the trailer on the same day as Squad's YouTube channel (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the footage in the false posts (left) and the trailer (right):

The footage in the false posts (left) next to the trailer for video game Squad (right)

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

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