This article was originally published by CORRECTIV in German and was reproduced with permission. Any reprint permissions are subject to the original publisher.
Following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, a video purporting to show an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip is circulating on the internet. But the video was made in the course of a celebration of football fans in Algeria.
CLAIM
A video shows Israeli fighter jets bombing targets in the Gaza Strip.
Made by: Posts on social networks
Date: 08.10.2023
EVALUATION: WRONG CONTEXT
Wrong context. The video has existed since at least July 2023 and shows not the Gaza Strip, but football fans in Algiers in Algeria.
Following the attack by the Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas on several targets in Israel, a video purporting to show Israel attacking the Gaza Strip with fighter jets is spreading in German-speaking countries, but also internationally on Tiktok, Telegram and X (formerly Twitter). The shots were taken on a high-rise building and show the red smoky night sky of a city, banging noises can be heard. “Gaza Strip tonight after Israeli attacks”, for example, reads a Telegram post on the News from Russia channel known for disinformation; “Israeli fighter jets bomb targets in the northern Gaza Strip”, writes a user on X.
But the context is quite different: The video has been circulating on the net since at least July 2023. Comments on social media suggest that it could be a victory celebration by fans of the Algerian football club CR Belouizdad in the country’s capital Algiers.
Video already published on Youtube in July 2023
On social networks, posts- for example on X- refer to videos showing CR Belouizdad fans celebrating the Algerian championship in the streets of Algiers in August 2020. These are not the same shots as those that are currently being distributed. But the Spanish fact-checking editorial team Newtral found the currently shared video on Youtube – dated 16 July 2023. The video description simply says “CRB” – which matches the abbreviation for CR Belouizdad:
Videos of Belouizdad fans celebrating with Bengal fire in Algiers’ streets have been on the net for years
The football fans of Belouizdad have been known for years to celebrate in the streets of Algiers with Bengal fire and rocket flares, covering entire streets in red smoke. Such videos from previous years can be found on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, for example, and strongly resemble the scenes from the currently distributed video.
The fact that the video does not show actual rocket attacks in Gaza is also supported by the fact that the sounds in the video and also the images match fireworks, as these screenshots of the fireworks show, for example:
The red clouds of smoke on the roofs of the houses match Belouizdad fans celebrating there with Bengal fires
In the video currently circulating, it looks as if roofs are on fire – this also fits in with the fan behaviour of Belouizdad fans: Videos show them repeatedly on house roofs with Bengal fire, for example here and here in July 2023:
The same conclusion, that the video does not show an Israeli attack, is also reached, for example, by the US fact-checking organisation Lead Stories and the Indian fact-checking editorial team Boom.
All fact checks on false reports and rumours following the Hamas terror attack can be found here.
Credits:
Author: Uschi Jonas
Copy editing: Steffen Kutzner, Sophie Timmermann