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, and he is thanking Iran and others for their support. However, the video is old; It's from 2014.
The claim appeared in a post and video on X (archived here), the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on October 8, 2023. It was published on the account of Jim Ferguson, who identifies himself in his profile as a former U.K. parliamentary candidate, a businessman and an entrepreneur. The post said:
Breaking News Israel: Spokesperson of Izzuddin Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obaidah:
"We thank the Islamic Republic of Iran who provided us with weapons, money and other equipment! He gave us missiles to destroy Zionist fortresses, and helped us with standard anti-tank missiles!"
#Iran providing weaponry to their proxies enabling attacks on Israel. #IsraelPalestineWar #Israel_under_attack #HezbollahTerrorists #HamasTerrorists
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Thu Oct 12 14:16:57 2023 UTC)
Not 'breaking news'
The video in the post is from December 2014, not October 2023, so the information about the Hamas spokesperson thanking Iran for its support against Israel is nothing new. It's not "breaking news" as the post suggests.
The following video of Abu Obaidah (archived here) during the same address was published on December 15, 2014, by Al Jazeera Mubasher, an Arabic channel based in Doha, Qatar:
State Department
It is true that Iran has been a longtime supporter of Hamas, but the post and video on X have nothing to do with the 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict. A State Department report on Iran said this in 2020:
Iran has historically provided up to $100 million annually in combined support to Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. These terrorist groups have been behind a number of deadly attacks originating from Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, and Lebanon, including attacks against Israeli civilians ...
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims related to the 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict can be found here.
