Claim: Facebook users share a video claiming it shows Hamas’s recent strikes on Israel.
Fact: The video is not real, it’s actually from a video game, Arma 3 and was posted by a Bangladeshi gamer on Facebook.
On 7 October 2023 the Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, launched a “surprise attack” on Israel via sea, land, and air. In response, the Israeli government formally declared war on Hamas on 8 October 2023.
At least 1,400 fatalities have been reported in Israel, while health officials reported that more than 8,000 people have been killed in Gaza, Palestine, according to a report by OCHA. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA, reported that over one million people, almost half the total population of Gaza, have been displaced.
The Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues at the time of writing.
Fact or Fiction?
On 8 October 2023, a Facebook user posted a video (archived) with an Urdu caption,
اسرائیل اور فلسطین و حماس کی جنگ شدت اختیار کر گئی اسرائیل کی طرف سے جنگی طیاروں سے بمباری اور نیچے کھڑے حماس و فلسطین کے مجاہدوں نے اسرائیلی طیارے مار گرائے
Translated [The war between Israel and Palestine – Hamas intensified. Israeli planes were bombarded by warplanes and the Mujahideen of Hamas – Palestine shot down Israeli planes from the ground.]
The video shows a helicopter getting shot down to the ground, by what could be identified as a missile.
When Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video, no evidence was found of this exact video being shared before 8 October 2023. In fact, a watermark of, “Belal The Gamer” could be seen in the video.
A keyword search of this name on Google resulted in a Facebook page with the same name. According to information on the page, Belal is a gaming content creator based in Bangladesh, and the viral video was published on his Facebook page on 20 September 2023.
The gamer has posted many videos depicting the Russia-Ukraine war, and other warfare scenarios, created using the video simulator Arma 3. Soch Fact Check tried to get in touch with the page owner for more information, but we have not received a response as of the time of writing.
Since the onset of the Israel-Gaza escalation, many similar video game clips claiming to show Hamas’ attack on Israel have been shared as real footage, and have been debunked by Soch Fact Check.
Virality
The false video received 6.2 million views, 204k likes, and 6.3k comments on Facebook. The archived version can be seen here.
Conclusion: The video showing Hamas shooting down Israeli helicopters is false as it predates the Hamas attack on Israel. It was made using a video game simulator known as Arma 3.
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com