CLARIFICATION

By: Christian Haag
November 14 2023

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Source: Smoke rises after Israeli strikes in Gaza, as seen from southern Israel. (Reuters/Alexander Ermochenko)

The fact-check that assessed the claim that Israel admitted that Apache helicopters fired upon their own civilians at the Supernova music festival has been withdrawn after an editorial review. The story was originally published on November 14, 2023.

It was concluded that this claim cannot be verified as this does not rely on a fact that can be fact-checked but instead is based on an article initially published by the Israeli news outlet Yedioth Ahronoth, reporting the difficulties the helicopter pilots faced in differentiating between Hamas and Israeli soldiers and civilians on the ground and then quoted by Middle East Monitor.

Media outlets report that Israel is conducting a security assessment on the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, making this incident part of the investigation. Therefore, there is no clear and official information yet of what exactly happened, being this part of an evolving and developing investigation.

 This check also addressed another claim that was fact-checkable. Some users said that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) leaked infrared footage from an Apache helicopter firing at different targets. However, the original footage was part of combat footage published by the Israeli Defence Forces on October 9.

 Logically Facts has extensively fact-checked claims on the Israel-Hamas conflict and will continue to do so, following standards of transparency and rigor. We apologize to our readers for any confusion the withdrawal of the original article might cause.