Fact Check

Does a video show Palestinian children "searching for burnt food" after airstrikes that occurred during the 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict? No, that's not true: The footage predates by three months the conflict that arose after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The mislabelled video documented the aftermath of a fire that destroyed tents in a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon,…

Did U.S. Marines capture a "deep state base" in a "bloody battle" in Camp San Luis Obispo, California? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer confirmed to Lead Stories that this claim is false. The claim appeared in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content that is often mistaken for real news. The story appeared in…

Does a video show displaced Palestinian people who had no place to go sleeping outdoors on the ground? No, that's not true: The video was filmed in early August 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal, during World Youth Day, an international Catholic pilgrimage and gathering with the pope. The video is unrelated to the Hamas-Israel conflict and Israel's October 13, 2023, evacuation…

Did the "Palestinian ambassador in Japan" say that the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza had received a warning from Israel before an explosion on October 17, 2023? Yes, that is true. However, the representative, Waleed Siam, later corrected himself, clarifying that his words about the warning were related to previous airstrikes, not this particular one. The story appeared in…

Does a video on social media show scenes of Egyptian Bedouin Muslims heading to the border of Gaza to demand the borders be opened for Palestinians and to participate in a jihad "against Zionists"? No, that's not true: The video features two different scenes showing large numbers of trucks traveling together. Both predate the Hamas-Israel conflict that started in October…

Are written assertions that "American Troops do not want to die for Israel," and that the U.S. military in the region "does not have enough assets to support Israel" taken from an authentic leaked U.S. military officer's internal memo? No, that's not true: The purported email being cited and quoted on social media is fake. A press release from the…

Does a video shared on social media show a "failed Hamas rocket launch" striking a hospital in Gaza on October 17, 2023? No, that's not true: The clip was widely shared more than a year earlier in August 2022. At the time, it was reported to be a failed rocket launch by Islamic Jihad that caused an explosion in Jabaliya…

Does a video genuinely show people waiting in a hospital "vanishing [into] thin air" during the religious phenomenon known as the rapture? No, that's not true: An edited video shared to social media in October 2023 was created by Perhaps Today!, a religious group that creates "thought-provoking pre-enactment video clips of the moment of the Rapture." The video was originally…

Does a video shared on social media show North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un speaking on the October 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict, Donald Trump and World War III? No, that's not true: This speech shown in the video was made in October 2020, according to the BBC, three years before the 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict began. Also, Kim is not speaking about any…

Did Egyptians deliver humanitarian aid of food and water carried on their backs from Egypt to Gaza? No, that's not true: The video in the post making that claim predates the 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict and therefore could not depict a humanitarian response to the October, 2023 blockade imposed by Israel. The video used in the false claim was first posted…

Did BBC News broadcast "breaking" news that Elon Musk has a new trading app that will allow Britons to make so much money that they won't have to work anymore? No, that's not true: The BBC's website includes no such report and the footage of Musk is from an appearance at the World Government Summit on February 15, 2023. He…

Did a viral video shot from what appeared to be a balcony by "a random civilian" become "another visual of the invasion" of Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023? No, that's not true: The original upload of this footage did not link the video to Hamas' attack. Similar videos apparently filmed at the same location clearly show Egypt's flag,…

Did Pope Francis declare World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab a "more important" figure than Jesus Christ? No, that's not true: The People's Voice, the website originally making the claim, provided no sources proving the pope said this. The site has a long history of publishing fake or made up quotes and has a liability disclaimer that seeks to absolve…

Does a photo published on social media show Palestinian children killed during the Israel-Hamas conflict that began on October 7, 2023? No, that's not true: While the image does depict children who lost their lives in the Middle East, it actually dates back to 2013 and was taken during the civil war in Syria. The person making the claim later…

Does a video on social media capture a brand-new Israeli defense system in action during the October 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict? No, that's not true: At the time, Iron Beam was not known for being employed by the Israeli forces. The video on social media presented a cropped version of an Arma-3 game simulation. The claim appeared in a post (archived…

Is there no visual evidence to prove there was a coordinated attack by Hamas militants that killed hundreds of people at the Supernova music festival? No, that's not true: The violent attack at the Supernova Festival is not a conspiracy or lie told by a few propagandists. There were thousands of eye-witnesses who were there at the festival and hundreds…

Does a video on social media show people climbing a wall at the Lebanon-Israel border in October 2023 in response to the Hamas-Israel conflict? No, that's not true: The footage is from a 2021 protest against Israeli raids on the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip. Videos from that time showed footage similar to what is seen in this video, and news outlets…

Does a well-known video of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, now on social media, show an inflatable prop rather than a real military plane? No, that's not true: There's no credible evidence to suggest that the scores of people in the clip were running alongside and hanging onto a blow-up version of the massive cargo jet. Additionally, in…

Did the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) convict and sentence U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley to "hang"? No, that's not true: The website where this claim was made has a disclaimer that states it publishes satirical content. Fictional stories from the site are often copied by other sites that falsely present them as news. The claim appeared in an…

Does a video of a girl being beaten and burned alive depict a woman captured at the site of the October 2023 Israeli music festival massacre, where Hamas gunmen killed more than 260 people? No, that's not true: The video predates the attack by 8 years and was taken 7,500 miles away, in Guatemala. The footage shows a 16-year-old girl,…