Fact Check: Video game clip being viral as Israel-Palestine war video
Many videos are being viral on social media as being about Israel-Palestine war. Lighthouse Journalism found in its investigation that the viral videos are misleading and have no connection with the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine.
What is going viral?
X (formerly Twitter) user IBRAR has shared a video on his profile, claiming that Palestine Freedom Fighters have been seen parachuting into Israeli territory.
Another video posted by X user jucy7off claimed that Palestinian Freedom Fighters have shot down four Israeli helicopters in Gaza.
We found another video posted by Twitter user Aalia_khan, whose caption claims that Palestinian Freedom Fighters have shot down four Israeli war helicopters in Gaza.
What was found in the investigation?
We started our investigation with the first video, in which people can be seen descending with the help of parachutes.
In the comments of this tweet, many people had written that the video is not of the Israel-Palestine war, but of the Egyptian Military Training Academy.
To examine the video, we divided it into separate frames using the InVid tool. A building can be seen in the video. We took that frame of the video in which that building was visible. Then that frame was entered in reverse image search. We found some tweets related to that.
Then we searched for more pictures of the building shown in the background. We saw that building on Google Map, from which it became clear that the video is not from Israel but from Egypt.
Then we started investigating the second video.
In the video, a man can be seen attacking the helicopters.
As the source of the video, we found Makadon’s Twitter profile, where the user posted the video. The user clearly said that the video clip is from the game Arma 3.
We also examined the post’s comment box, where several users wrote that the footage is from the video game Arma 3.
We found the same video clip posted seven months ago on YouTube. The video was viewed 20 million times. The person who uploaded the video has clearly written that it is from Arma 3. The description reads: “KA-50 battle helicopter shot down by FIM-92F advanced stinger missile | St. 77 MilSim ARMA3”
This made it clear that the clip is from the video game Arma-3, and not from the Israel-Palestine war.
Then we checked the third video. It was also being shared with the same claim that Israeli helicopters were destroyed.
We also found similar comments on this video, in which it has been told that this video is a clip of Arma-3 game.
conclusion: Many such videos are being shared on social media which have nothing to do with the Israel-Palestine war. Many of the video clips are from the game. So many from some other country. The viral claims are fake.
