False claims on Israel, Hamas attacks: recycled videos, video game clip, fake White House memo

In the days since Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200 people in sweeping assaults on kibbutzim, a music festival, towns and other places, violent images and graphic videos have flooded social media.

So too have false and misleading information, old and unrelated videos and photos with inaccurate claims, and fabricated assertions about the involvement of countries like the United States and Ukraine – adding confusion and deception to an already chaotic moment.

The false information circulating online risks clouding real evidence of atrocities that is emerging as Israeli soldiers retake control of places that were attacked: videos and photos, corroborated by witness accounts, that show Palestinian gunmen attacked and killed Israeli civilians in large numbers. Soldiers and emergency workers are still recovering the dead, including children, in many communities.

Meta said on Friday it was taking steps including removing praise and substantive support for Hamas from its platforms after the European Union reprimanded social media companies for not doing enough to tackle disinformation.

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In the three days after the Hamas attacks, Meta said it removed or marked as disturbing more than 795,000 pieces of content in Hebrew or Arabic.

Meta is also temporarily expanding its violence and incitement policy and removing content that clearly identifies hostages taken by Hamas, even if it is being done to condemn or raise awareness of their situation.

Content with blurred images of victims is still allowed but the company will prioritise the safety and privacy of kidnapping victims if unsure or unable to make a clear assessment, it said.

Here’s a look at some of the inaccurate material circulating online.

A video game, not a Hamas assault

Social media users shared a clip purportedly showing footage of “a new air assault on parts of Israel”. But the imagery is in fact taken from a video game, Arma 3, as a video shared on YouTube in 2022 shows. A representative for the game’s developer, Bohemia Interactive, also confirmed the clip online was taken from the game.

Visuals from that game have been used in the past to misrepresent other real-world conflicts, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A video showing violence in 2015

Some people on social media have shared a video of a woman being lit on fire, surrounded by a crowd of people, suggesting it showed the torture of an Israeli woman captured at a festival.

“This is the diabolic face of Hamas Jihadi terrorists torturing Israeli girl at the Nature Festival in Re’im,” read one post of the video on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, which has since been removed.

The video depicts real violence – but violence that took place in Central America in 2015, not Israel in 2023. The footage depicts a 16-year-old being burned to death in a Guatemalan village, CNN reported at the time.

A fabricated White House memo

An image circulating online was made to resemble a screenshot of a purported October 7th White House announcement providing Israel with $8 billion (€7.6 billion) in aid, with some suggesting it indicated Ukraine would now have competition for US help.

But the White House published no such announcement.

The supposed announcement resembles actual memorandums issued by the White House, notably a similar July announcement concerning assistance for Ukraine.

President Joe Biden gave an address Tuesday about the Hamas attacks and vowed to support Israel, a US ally that receives more than $3 billion in military assistance every year. Biden and White House officials have said the administration will be asking Congress to authorise additional support for Israel.

On Tuesday, the American ambassador to Nato said that US military assistance to Israel would not come at Ukraine’s expense. The US has committed around $45 billion in weapons and military aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

An invented BBC report

A fabricated video shared on Telegram and X purported to show a BBC report that Bellingcat, an investigative group, had found that weapons provided by Nato to Ukraine had been sold to Hamas.

“Bellingcat: Ukrainian military offensive failure and HAMAS attack linked,” opening text on the video claimed.

But the BBC never published that report, and the underlying claim is unsubstantiated.

Bellingcat’s founder, Eliot Higgins, called the video “100% fake”. Shayan Sardarizadeh, a BBC journalist, also said it was false.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine has condemned Hamas and repeatedly expressed support for Israel. Hamas and Russia, he said in a speech Monday, were “the same evil, and the only difference is that there is a terrorist organisation that attacked Israel, and here is a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine”.

An untouched Orthodox church

An image – posted on X under the words, “Breaking News” – claims to show Israeli warplanes bombing Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church, the largest church in Gaza.

Church officials put out a statement saying that the reports were false. “We would like to inform you that Saint Porphyrios Church in Gaza is untouched,” they said on Facebook. “The news circulating about it being damaged are false.”

Israel says it has launched hundreds of strikes targeting Hamas in Gaza since Saturday. Gaza residents and health authorities say that mosques, hospitals and schools are being hit, and UN officials have said that airstrikes have damaged water, sanitation and hygiene facilities affecting more than 400,000 people.

CNN did not stage a report or attack

CNN on Monday published real footage of a correspondent, Clarissa Ward, and her colleagues ducking for cover as rockets were fired near the Israel-Gaza border.

A manipulated version of the report has been widely shared online, with audio edited over the video to suggest a control room was giving the crew instructions, suggesting the report was somehow staged.

“CNN EXPOSED FOR FAKING AN ATTACK IN ISRAEL,” reads one X post with the video.

“The audio in the video posted and shared on X is fabricated, inaccurate and irresponsibly distorts the reality of the moment that was covered live on CNN,” a spokesperson for the network said, urging viewers to watch the real footage on a trusted platform.

False report of a US embassy evacuation

On Wednesday, false reports circulated online claiming that the US embassy in Lebanon was being evacuated, prompting officials to publicly debunk the assertion.

The embassy responded with a statement Wednesday afternoon, saying, “The US Embassy in Beirut has not evacuated and is open and operating normally. Reports saying otherwise are false.”

Embassy officials have advised US citizens in the area to take caution and avoid travelling to the Lebanon-Israel border, where the Israeli military and the group Hizbullah have exchanged fire over recent days. Israel briefly invaded Lebanon in 2006 after Hizbullah assailants crossed the border and abducted two Israeli soldiers, and the group’s recent border fire has raised fears of a wider regional conflict.

False video of Israel ‘creating fake footage of deaths’

The video shows a young boy in a black T-shirt apparently lying in a pool of blood. Above him is a camera, with a man shouting directions near him. Two men in kippahs, the Jewish skull caps, and men in green military fatigues similar to Israel Defence Forces uniforms are gathered around him.

The clip has been viewed about 2m times on X. It was shared by a verified user with the caption: “Video showing Israel attempting to create fake footage of deaths.”

In fact, the clip is a behind-the-scenes shot from a Palestinian short film, Empty Place, which focuses on the vacuum left by Palestinians who fled due to the Israeli occupation.

It seems to have originated on TikTok before finding its way to X – but while the original TikTok post now appears to be unavailable, on X it has continued to circulate and gain traction. The user behind the X post that attracted two million views later acknowledged the clip may have been used out of context.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times; additional reporting: Reuters, Guardian