By: Rahul Adhikari
December 7 2022
Misleading: Photos show Israeli air strikes on Gaza on December 4, 2022.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict Misleading
Three old photos of Israeli aircraft attacks on Gaza from 2019 and 2021 have been misattributed to the recent air strike on December 4, 2022.
Claim ID 5c90e143
Context
The Israeli air force launched air strikes against several military sites in the Gaza Strip on December 4, 2022, after Palestinian militants fired a missile into Southern Israel. According to Israeli officials, the missile was fired after tension rose in the occupied West Bank. In this context, a post published on Facebook on December 4, 2022, showed three images of explosions and flames from the recent attack on Gaza. The caption of the post read, "Gaza Under Attack 💔😥 Please Pray For Gaza, Palestine 🇵🇸✌️🇵🇸." The user posted a status that read, "Feeling sad in Gaza, Palestine." We found a few other posts of the visuals on Facebook and TikTok.
In Fact
We ran reverse image searches on each of the three images. The first photo was found in a Guardian article dated March 26, 2019. The caption read, "A ball of fire is seen above Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike on a building believed to house the offices of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh." After further research, we found photojournalist Ashraf Amra took the photo for Anadolu Agency, the Turkish state-run news agency.
Reuters photographer Mohammed Ajour took the second photo in the post on March 25, 2019. The caption read, "Flame and smoke are seen during an Israeli air strike in Gaza City March 25, 2019." The Associated Press reported that Israel carried out air strikes against Hamas in Gaza on March 25, 2019, hours after a rocket fired from the coastal strip hit a home in central Israel. According to Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf Al Qedra, seven people suffered injuries caused by Israeli attacks.
The third photo in the viral post was found in a CBS News article dated June 16, 2021, with the caption, "Flames are seen after an Israeli airstrike hit a purported Hamas target in Gaza City, Gaza, June 15, 2021." The image is credited to Ali Jadallah for Anadolu Agency/Getty. The report states that Israel launched an air strike on the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants fired incendiary balloons into southern Israel.
The Verdict
Although the Israeli air force struck several military sites in the Gaza Strip in response to a missile fired by Palestinian militants on December 4, these visuals are not from this incident. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.
