A video on Facebook (FB) showed clips of the 2020 catastrophic explosion in Beirut, Lebanon and linked it to the ongoing conflict between Hamas militants and Israel. This misleads.
A Filipino FB user published the video on Oct. 12, ostensibly to gain interactions as the publisher further tagged their “followers” in the comment section. While it mentioned Beirut, the post’s spurious caption also bore the hashtags: #israelnews #israelpalestineupdate #followers #friends #everyone #highlights #Gaza #Palestine #hamasattack.
The nearly three-minute video spliced together several clips of a tower’s explosion and the huge shockwave that followed, CCTV footage of a parent protecting their child from the explosion, and the aftermath of the incident.
The tragic incident in the clips is unrelated to the war between Israel and Hamas.
A reverse image search revealed that the clips shown in the misleading video were taken during and after a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut sparked a devastating explosion, ripping through the capital of Lebanon in 2020.
Comments under the clickbait video show FB users believing the clips were taken during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, calling for the safety of the people there.
Misinformation related to the Israel-Hamas conflict continued to spread this week, two weeks since the war began. VERA Files Fact Check has debunked several claims.
(Read PH NOT party to Israel-Hamas war and More FB pages FALSELY show gameplay videos as legit ‘Israel-Hamas- footage)
The FB user’s misleading video has garnered over 250 comments, 240 shares and 152,000 views.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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