Claim: Two videos show the Israeli Air Force bombing different targets in Gaza, Palestine amid the recent escalation between Israel and Palestine.
Fact: The videos are from May 2023, not the recent escalation. The first video shows Israeli airstrikes destroying a house in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza, Palestine, and the second video shows a house in northern Gaza being targeted.
Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, launched an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 via sea, land, and air. In response, the Israeli government formally declared war on Hamas on 8 October 2023. The Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues, as of writing time.
Fact or Fiction?
On 7 October 2023, TikTok influencer Hareem Shah (@_Hareem_Shah) posted two videos, here and here, on X (formerly Twitter), claiming they show the Israeli Air Force bombing different targets in Gaza, Palestine following the recent escalations.
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be misleading. A reverse-image search led us to a tweet by Palestine Online (@OnlinePalEnglish) from 13 May 2023 carrying the same video. The tweet states that Israeli airstrikes destroyed a house in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza, Palestine.
Israeli airstrikes killed 13 people including three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement, according to a report published by Al Jazeera on 8 May 2023.
The report also stated that Israeli bombardment damaged multiple areas in Gaza, including al-Safina, al-Baydar, and near al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in the first week of May.
Israel and Islamic Jihad had agreed on a cease-fire in May to end five days of fighting that killed at least 33 people in Palestine and two people in Israel, as reported by the Associated Press (AP).
Soch Fact Check reverse-image searched key frames of the second video via Google Lens and found Voice of America posted the same video on 13 May 2023 on Facebook. The video is titled “Israeli Strike Hits House in Northern Gaza”.
A comparison graphic below based on key indicators shows both videos show the same building and area being bombarded.
Virality:
On Facebook, the videos can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The videos posted by Hareem Shah garnered significant traction with 363,600 views and 1.1 million views, respectively on X.
Conclusion: The viral videos are unrelated to the recent escalation between Israel and Palestine. In fact, it is from May 2023.