Claim: Al Jazeera broadcast a video showing the Indian Army’s bombardment of Sialkot in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Fact: The video is actually from Palestine and shows Al Jazeera’s coverage of the bombing of a hospital in Gaza.
On 13 May 2025, X user @PranayHinger posted (archive) a video showing heavy bombardment in an area as people flee the violent attacks. The accompanying caption reads as follows:
“BIG BREAKING Al Jazeera Channel has released new footage of the Indian Army’s attack on Sialkot, Pakistan. Well done Indian army. #CasteConsensus can be done of Pakistanis too.”
Among the hashtags is “#PakistanArmyBehindPahalgam”; however, Pakistan has consistently denied such accusations and India has not provided any proof of Islamabad’s involvement. Notably, New Delhi made the allegations within hours of the Pahalgam attack.
Pakistan-India conflict
In one of the most intense military escalations in decades, Pakistan and India exchanged drones, fire, shelling, and missiles for four days in May 2025, resulting in casualties on both sides. The conflict raised fears of a nuclear war between the two neighbouring countries who have fought three wars over the disputed Kashmir region.
India launched Operation Sindoor on 7 May 2025, targeting at least six locations inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. These attacks killed at least 31 people — including three children — and wounded 57 others, according to Pakistani authorities.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirmed that the Pakistan Army “intercepted and destroyed 77 Israeli-made Harop drones” from India, a number also cited by state media outlet, the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). As of now, Soch Fact Check has not been able to independently verify the exact number of Indian drones that entered Pakistan or how many were shot down.
However, debris from multiple drones was found in a number of locations; Soch Fact Check visited and investigated the attacks at two crash sites each in Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Lahore. Read our on-ground report here.
In response, the Pakistan Army announced a counterattack — named “Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos”, which is an Arabic phrase that translates to “steel wall” — against India in the wee hours of 10 May 2025.
The military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said Pakistan hit “26x military targets as well as facilities that were used to target Pakistani citizens and those enterprises that were responsible for fomenting terrorism in Pakistan”. These included those at “Suratgarh, Sirsa, Bhuj, Naliya, Adampur, Bhatinda, Barnala, Halwara, Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Udhampur, Mamun, Ambala, and Pathankot”, it said. “[The] BrahMos storage facilities at Beas and Nagrota were also destroyed.”
India’s Defence Ministry alleged that Pakistan “launched 300-400 drones across 36 Indian locations”.
In a 13 May statement, the Pakistan Army announced a total death toll of 51, including “40 civilians and 11 military service members”, and that close to 200, including 121 civilians, were wounded.
On the other hand, India announced on 11 May that 21 civilians and five soldiers have died.
On 10 May, both nations announced a ceasefire agreement, which Pakistan says was brokered by US President Trump. New Delhi maintains that the ceasefire was worked out “directly” by both sides.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video and found matching footage in a broadcast by Al Jazeera from 9 November 2023.
The viral portion appears at the 5:07 mark in the original video.
According to the description accompanying Al Jazeera’s video, “The Palestinian interior ministry has reported ‘a number of injuries’ among thousands of displaced people who are sheltering in the yards of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza. The vicinity of the hospital was attacked by Israeli fighter jets, the ministry said, specifically the Tal al-Zaatar area.”
This was corroborated by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, which reported that “Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes in the vicinity of the hospital, which houses tens of thousands of wounded and displaced people, the majority of whom are children and women, killing a number of civilians and injuring many others.”
A few days prior to the attack, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari had alleged the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, “systematically built the Indonesian Hospital to disguise its underground terror infrastructure” — a claim refuted by the Indonesian government, which provided funds to build the facility, and a doctor from Gaza.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the video is unrelated to the Pakistan-India conflict from May 2025.
Virality
The post by @PranayHinger has been viewed over 170,100 times so far.
Soch Fact Check also found the claim posted here and here on Facebook and here on Instagram.
Conclusion: The video shows Al Jazeera’s coverage of the bombing of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza.
Background image in cover photo: The Artist Studio
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