Hamas Israel War

Does a viral video show actor Harrison Ford advocating for Palestine? No, that's not true: A fragment of his speech was taken out of context. Ford was discussing the Amazon rainforest at a 2019 United Nations climate event, over four years before the Hamas-Israel war that began on October 7, 2023. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on…

Did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make an announcement on April 17, 2024, pledging to spend $5 billion to construct new settlements in the Gaza Strip? No, that's not true: The video posted on X shows Netanyahu speaking in Hebrew, but the English subtitles do not accurately reflect what he said. The subtitles mention "settlements of the Gaza Strip" but…

Does a viral video capture people in Rafah applying makeup in order to fake injuries? No, that's not true: The claim mislabels a behind-the-scenes video from the production of a Palestinian TV series, not real-life scenes taking place in Gaza on May 6, 2024. The project premiered on March 12, 2024. The story appeared in a post (archived here) on…

Does a video show pro-Palestinian protesters at Harvard University replacing the U.S. flag with a Palestinian flag at a university building? No, that's not true: The Palestinian flags were raised when U.S. flags were not flying at the building. The Palestinian flags were removed by campus officials shortly after they were raised by protesters. The claim appeared in a post…

Does a video show actor Robert De Niro yelling at anti-Israel protestors? No, that's not true: A spokesperson at Netflix told Lead Stories that this video was taken during the rehearsal of an upcoming series. Lead Stories found photographs on Getty Images of De Niro in the same clothing he was wearing in the claim. The caption to these photos…

Do photos circulating on social media prove that pro-Palestinian college protesters in the U.S. are using largely identical tents? No, that's not true: While there is an abundance of green tents at the nationwide protests, images from multiple campuses show a broad variety of tents in the encampments. The green tents are sold at Walmart nationwide. The claim about lookalike…

Does a photo show a pro-Palestine protester in the United States defiantly using an officer's riot shield as a mirror as she applies her lip gloss? No, that's not true: This photo's authentic caption says it shows a protester in Tbilisi, Georgia. A different photo from a Reuters photographer covering the April 16, 2024, demonstrations in Tbilisi against a proposed…

Does a photo show that students in the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University installed inflatable dummies of paragliders, referencing one method that Hamas reportedly used during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel? No, that's not true: What could have been mistaken for two dummies in a low-quality picture on social media were emojis, not authentic objects. Photos of the…

Does a viral video prove that Israel voted "for Palestine" during a United Nations Security Council meeting? No, that's not true: In the meeting the then-president of the U.N. Security Council read a list of the countries supporting a resolution on Gaza days after the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. He included Israel but he immediately corrected himself and…

Does footage on social media show Palestinians celebrating at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem after they heard news of Iran's mid-April 2024 aerial attack on Israel? No, that's not true: The video was shot days before Iran launched drones and missiles against Israel. The video was recorded during the last Friday of Ramadan, according to a BBC reporter. Lead Stories…