Hamas-Israel War

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…

Did the Israel Defense Forces not open fire near trucks delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza on February 29, 2024? No, that's not true: The Israel Defense Forces officially acknowledged that Israeli soldiers fired shots within proximity of the incident. However the exact circumstances of the events leading up to the death of dozens of people remain disputed at the time…

Did Aaron Bushnell comment on Reddit that "Palestine will be free when all the jews are dead"? No, that's not true: Bushnell, the 25-year-old U.S. Air Force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not make the comment on the Reddit website. While his account was deleted after his death, searches using archives…

Does a video show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talking about his plan to "liberate" or "recolonize" Black people of Africa? No, that's not true: The clip cut off a sentence from his 2016 African Summit speech where he made it clear he was quoting a statement by a historical figure. On that occasion, Netanyahu said nothing about "recolonization." The…

Did American actress Angelina Jolie in 2024 call on the world to "unite against Israel"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no evidence corroborating the claim. This phrase has been falsely attributed to Jolie since at least 2006, according to Lead Stories' research. That's 17 years before the current Hamas-Israel war began in 2023. The quote was not part…