Egyptian singer misidentified as cop who killed IDF troops at Israel border

By: Toibah
June 9 2023

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Context

A viral video on social media alleges that an Egyptian soldier, who purportedly carried out an attack on the Israeli border resulting in three Israeli soldier deaths, is shown singing a song called "Salam Al-Shuhada Ally Ma'ak" (Salute to the Martyrs with You) by Sherine Abdel-Wahab. The claim suggests the soldier in the footage is the attacker.

Bakr Khallaf, a journalist based in Istanbul, Turkey also posted the video with an Arabic caption that translates to: "A video clip of #الجندى_المصرى (The Egyptian soldier) who killed 3 Israeli soldiers today and injured others, the soldier who was martyred for duty while singing for his country carrying his weapon. It was broadcast by the Israeli media that called the operation #السبت_الأسود #اسرائيل #مصر (#Black_Saturday #Israel #Egypt)."

According to a report by the Associated Press on June 4, 2023, a gunbattle occurred along Israel's southern border with Egypt on June 3, 2023, resulting in the deaths of three Israeli soldiers and an Egyptian officer. Israeli officials have stated that the Egyptian border guard crossed into Israel and killed three soldiers before being fatally shot by Israeli troops. Egypt, meanwhile, has claimed that the officer was pursuing drug smugglers when he entered Israeli territory.

In Fact

After conducting a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video, we discovered that the video was originally posted by Ahmed Hamada, an Egyptian singer, on July 30, 2022. In the video, Ahmed Hamada performs a song dedicated to martyrs, which he shared on his Facebook account.

After this narrative began to do the rounds, Hamada also posted a clarification about the video on his Facebook account on June 5, 2023, saying that he is the person in the video and is a singer, not a soldier.

On June 5, 2022, The Times of Israel reported that the Egyptian police officer accused of killing three Israeli soldiers in a border attack has been identified as Mohamed Salah Ibrahim, a 22-year-old from Cairo. The publication also shared the authentic photograph of Mohamed Salah. The BBC reported on this, stating that the media reports confirmed the police officer's identification as Mohammed Salah, aged 22, and mentioned that Israel had returned his body to Egypt. Salah and Hamada are two distinctly different individuals.

We have also contacted Ahmad Hamada and will update the check once we receive a response.

Verdict

The claim that the video clip shows the Egyptian soldier who carried out the attack on the Egyptian border singing prior to his death is false. The man in the video clarified that he is a singer, not a soldier. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.