Made-up remarks praising Hamas falsely linked to October truce
- Published on October 27, 2025 at 06:23
- 3 min read
- By Pasika KHERNAMNUOY, AFP Thailand
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Hamas freed 20 living hostages as part of a US-brokered ceasefire in early October 2025 between the Palestinian militant group and Israel. Online users from Thailand to Mexico baselessly claimed one recently released man praised his Hamas captors for their "bravery, humanity and respect". But the remarks are from a social media influencer who said he made them up based on his "own feelings" after a Russian-Israeli captive was released in February.
"Alexander Turbanov, an Israeli captive under the care of Hamas recently released from a prisoner swap, has come out to give a speech, revealing his personal experiences during his stay with Hamas, shocking the entire country of Israel," reads a Thai-language post shared October 17, 2025 on a Facebook page called "Thailand Stand with Palestine".
"Alexander said, 'Your kindness will forever be etched in my soul during the 498 days I lived among you. I learned from you the true meaning of manhood, pure bravery, humanity and respect for values.'"
The post, shared more than 6,500 times, also includes a picture of a man in a red shirt. Text overlaid on the image reads: "Israeli hostage revealed his feelings after being released. 'For 498 days, I was among you.'"
Similar posts also circulated in English and Spanish, as well as on Instagram, TikTok and X.
Some of the posts -- including one on X shared over 18,000 times -- use a different picture of the man in a red hoodie flanked by masked people in camouflage.
The posts -- earlier debunked by independent fact-checking organisation Snopes -- surfaced after a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect in early October (archived link).
Under the truce, Hamas returned 20 surviving hostages seized during the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack that sparked a war that has left Gaza in ruins (archived link).
In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 prisoners, mostly Palestinians, along with dozens of Palestinian bodies.
However, a Google keyword search of the circulating quote led to an X post that shares a very similar statement written in Arabic published on February 15, 2025 (archived link).
"Your kindness will forever be etched on my soul, for during 498 days I lived among you," it similarly reads. "Despite the oppression and aggression you endured, I learned from you the true meaning of manhood, pure bravery, humanity, and respect for values."
The post includes the same scene of the man wearing a red hoodie.
The X user said in a follow-up post on February 16 that "these are not the words of the captive" (archived link). "I wrote it in the hostage's words based on my own feelings."
Russian-Israeli hostage
A combination of reverse image and further keyword searches found corresponding pictures of the released hostage in news reports identifying him as Alexander Trufanov.
But Trufanov -- identified by Israel as Sasha Trupanov -- was released on February 15, days after a Russian deputy foreign minister urged Hamas to keep "promises" to free him (archived link).
His partner, grandmother and mother Yelena were also captured and released in the war's first truce in November 2023, but his father, Vitali Trupanov, died in the October 7 attack.
The Trupanov family immigrated to Israel from Russia in the late 1990s. The family's surname is rendered differently in Hebrew and Russian, where it is spelt Trufanov.
The clip of Trufanov in the same red shirt was published by The Times of Israel on May 30, 2024 (archived link).
The report said the clip was released by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group on the day, and serves as his proof of life.
Meanwhile, his picture in a red hoodie was published by Reuters news agency on February 15 (archived link).
Its description said Trufanov was being escorted by Palestinian militants "as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip" on the same day.
AFP has published similar images of him as one of the three Israeli hostages released on February 15.
More of AFP's reporting on Gaza war misinformation can be found here.
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