Thousands of people have tragically lost their lives in the Israel-Hamas war since October 7, 2023. The conflict began when Hamas militants crossed from Gaza into southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages. In response, Israel launched a retaliatory bombing campaign and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. The conflict has been widely documented on social media, with many graphic images being shared.
However, amidst the flood of images, certain posts are being shared out of context. Since November, there have been online posts claiming to show Israeli troops executing Palestinians and burying their bodies in a mass grave. These claims are false. The video in question was actually taken in 2013 and shows a massacre perpetrated by the Syrian army in the suburbs of Damascus.
The false posts gained traction on various social media platforms, with captions accusing the Israeli military of war crimes and comparing their actions to those of Hitler. The posts urged users to share the video widely before it was supposedly removed by those who control social media.
Using video verification tools, it was confirmed that the video was indeed filmed in Syria and has been taken out of context before. The footage was originally discovered by a recruit in a loyalist Syrian militia in 2019 and was later reported by The Guardian in April 2022. The video, which is date-stamped April 16, 2013, depicts a massacre in the Damascus suburb of Tadamon. It was found on a laptop that had previously belonged to one of President Bashar al-Assad’s security units.
It is worth noting that Syria has been embroiled in a devastating civil war since 2011, resulting in the loss of over 500,000 lives and the displacement of millions of people. The war began with pro-democracy protests during the Arab Spring uprisings and has since escalated into a complex and bloody conflict.
This is not the first time the video has been shared out of context. In April 2023, it circulated alongside false claims that it showed the killing of a group of builders in Turkey following a massive earthquake. The earthquake, which occurred on February 6, 2023, claimed the lives of over 50,000 people in southeastern Turkey and parts of Syria. The Turkish government launched investigations and made arrests related to the earthquake and the alleged misconduct of real estate developers.
Both the Israel-Hamas war and the Turkey earthquake have generated a significant amount of misinformation, highlighting the importance of fact-checking and verifying information before sharing it online.
