Video falsely claimed to show Gaza parliament destruction
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 21, 2023 at 22:51
- 6 min read
- By AFP France, AFP Canada
- Translation and adaptation Gwen ROLEY
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"After capturing it days ago, the IDF has now blown up the chambers of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Gaza's de facto parliament," says a November 15, 2023 post sharing the clip on X, formerly known as Twitter. Among those amplifying the claim was Israeli diplomat Ofir Gendelman, who has previously promoted unsupported allegations about Palestinian "crisis actors."
The claims spread on Israeli media and circulated on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok -- including in French, Romanian, Czech, Spanish and Italian.
The posts come more than a month after Hamas militants crossed into Israel and killed 1,200 people -- mostly civilians -- and took at least 240 more back to Gaza as hostages, according to the country's latest figures.
Israel subsequently cut off food, water and fuel to the Palestinian territory and deployed air and ground campaigns that have killed more than 14,100 people -- also mostly civilians, nearly 6,000 of them children -- as of November 21, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Bombardments in Gaza have razed entire neighborhoods, displacing more than 1.5 million people. The territory's parliamentary complex has also reportedly been partially destroyed.
But the video circulating online does not show the wreckage -- it depicts an explosion at a different structure in Gaza.
Gaza parliament damaged
The Israeli army said November 14 that it had taken over "the Hamas parliament, the government building, the Hamas police headquarters and an engineering faculty that served as an institute for the production and development of weapons."
Images published in articles and on social media (archived here and here) appear to show Israeli troops in the Palestinian Legislative Council building in Gaza City, where Hamas -- the territory's de facto government -- had convened.
The New York Times published satellite images (archived here) that show the Gaza parliamentary complex was partially destroyed between November 14 and 15, after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) took control of the building.
The Palestinian Legislative Council complex in Gaza City has been mostly destroyed, a new satellite image from today shows. Buildings were heavily damaged or destroyed, an adjoining park was bulldozed. The complex was taken over by the IDF several days ago. @planetpic.twitter.com/0l3qHbiNAx
— Christoph Koettl (@ckoettl) November 15, 2023
CNN published a similar report (archived here), noting that it was unable to verify if the Israeli army was responsible for the wreckage.
Footage from Palestinian village
AFP could not independently verify the origin of the video circulating on social media, but it was not taken in Gaza City.
The Palestinian Legislative Council building in Gaza has distinct architectural features, including its gate and dome -- neither of which appear in the footage shared online. The parliament is also in a dense urban environment, while the building in the clip appears to be in a more rural area.
Some social media users say the video was taken in the village of Juhor ad Dik (archived here), which AFP confirmed using geolocation techniques.
The six towers and the tree in the footage match the characteristics of the building seen in satellite images shared online.
Juhor ad Dik is about six kilometers from the Palestinian Legislative Council building in Gaza City.
On October 28, the New York Times analyzed a video the Israeli army had taken the day before showing tanks "traveling west toward the village of Juhor ad Dik" (archived here).
"Buildings, including what appear to be houses and apartment buildings, are seen being bombarded in an area about one mile long in Juhor ad Dik," the newspaper reported.
Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza has damaged or destroyed multiple mosques, churches, apartment complexes and hospitals.
More of AFP's reporting on misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war is available here.
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