Israeli parliament members were grieving Hamas attack, not military losses

By: Nikolaj Kristensen
November 17 2023

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(Source: Facebook/TikTok/Screenshots)

Context

A video of people crying in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, is circulating on Facebook with claims that members of parliament were crying over military losses suffered against Hamas. 

“Several ISRAELI Knesset members left their meeting CRYING today due to the ‘HEAVY CASUALTIES’ their military has suffered against Hamas thus far,” wrote one Facebook user in a post containing the video, uploaded on November 1, 2023. The video was also shared on TikTok with similar claims. 

However, the video was filmed after the members of parliament had been shown distressing footage from Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, where civilians were killed and others taken hostage. The reaction was prompted by the screening. 

In fact 

With the help of Google Images, we found the logo in the top left corner of the video to be the logo of Israeli news channel Now 14. Next to the logo, it says Moti Kastel, a reporter for Now 14. Kastel posted the video to his X, formerly Twitter, account on November 1, 2023, naming the members of parliament seen in the clip and detailing how they had started crying – one fainting – from watching a screening. 

A Now 14 news report from the same day, written by Kastel, explains that the Knesset members had watched a film, prepared by the Israeli Defence Forces spokesperson, of Hamas’ October 7 attack. The report contains a video of Knesset member Michal Waldiger with tears in her eyes saying (according to a translation): “We saw burned babies, burned women and elderly people.”

Now 14 posted a news report to X and YouTube containing clips from the video Kastel posted on X with the following description in Hebrew: “Shaking with tears: the film of the horrors of the murderous massacre shook the elected officials.”

Israeli news site The Times of Israel also reported on the Knesset members leaving the screening of the Hamas attacks in tears. According to The Times of Israel, 50 members of the Knesset attended the screening of the 43-minute-long film that contained a collection of raw footage from security cameras, Hamas terrorists’ body cameras, victims’ dashboard cameras, Hamas and victims’ social media accounts, and cellphone videos taken by terrorists, victims, and first responders.

The verdict

The Knesset members were crying from attending a screening of footage from Hamas’ October 7 attack, not due to military losses. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.