Iran

Does a viral social media video show an Iranian attack on a "petrol pump" in Israel in 2023? No, that's not true: The footage is from 2014 and showed an explosion at a gas station in Makhachkala, capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan. The explosion did not happen during the October 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict. It occurred years earlier and…

Was a black flag that appeared over Razavi Shrine in Iran in October 2023 meant to express a "call to all of Islam for War"? No, that's not true: In this particular case, it was a symbol of mourning, as the Facebook account for the shrine itself wrote. While extremist groups have hijacked the symbolism of black flags in recent…

Does a video on social media prove that the United Nations "is setting up shop" in the United States in 2023 to plot for a "take over" scheduled to take place "when WW3 is declared"? No, that's not true: This years-old claim was refuted by a U.S. State Department representative in 2016. He said that the U.N. vehicles seen in…

Did a Wall Street Journal article state that it was "an American MK-84" bomb that hit the Gaza hospital on October 17, 2023? No, that's not true: The newspaper did not publish that. The only supporting "evidence" in the social media post that made this claim was a photo from 1991 unrelated to the October 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict. The claim…

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 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 video being shared on social media show a Hamas military wing spokesperson thanking Iran for its support in October 2023, following the militant group's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023? No, that's not true: The video does show Abu Obaidah, a representative for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas,…

Did CNN show footage capturing Iranian lawmakers chanting "death to America" in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack of Israel? No, that's not true: The video circulating on social media was aired in 2020. The chanting was the reaction to the death of Qasem Soleimani, a high-ranking Iranian military official killed by a U.S. airstrike in Iraq…

Was a video of Jewish children held in animal cages posted to social media by "Arab" captors in order to show them off as trophies? No, that's not true: this video was posted on TikTok days before the Hamas attacks in Israel but by October 8, 2023 the video and the account that posted it were gone from TikTok. Screenshots…

Did Hamas claim that Ukraine sold them the weapons, purportedly paid for by the United States, that they used to attack Israel on October 7, 2023? No, that's not true: Hamas has made no such public claim. Additionally, there is no credible information, evidence, or reports supporting such an assertion. The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here),…