LONDON: Misleading and false videos and reports have been circulating online in the wake of recent incidents involving Hamas and Israel.
A clip taken from the combat video game Arma 3 has been shared on social media featuring the caption “a new air assault on parts of Israel.”
A spokesperson for Bohemia Interactive, the developer of the game, verified that the online video originated from its series, according to the New York Times.
Clips from the same game were previously used to misrepresent the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Another image shared on X claimed Israeli warplanes had bombed St. Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza. Church officials, in a statement shared by Elnashra, said: “St. Porphyrius Church in Gaza is in excellent condition. News published about it is nothing but rumors. We thank those who reached out and showed concern, and we ask everyone to pray for us.”
Israel’s fighter jets and artillery have been targeting mosques, hospitals, and schools in Gaza, and entire Palestinian families have been killed in their homes, the Times reported on Tuesday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli airstrikes had damaged essential infrastructure in Gaza, including sanitation and hygiene facilities, affecting more than 400,000 people in the besieged strip.
Social media users shared a false report of an embassy evacuation in Lebanon on Wednesday, following which the establishment responded: “The US Embassy in Beirut has not been evacuated and is open and operating normally. Reports saying otherwise are false.”
Others shared on Telegram and X a fabricated BBC video report claiming Bellingcat, an investigative group, had found that Ukraine had sold NATO weapons to Hamas.
Eliot Higgins, the founder of Bellingcat, said the video was “100 percent fake.”
CNN on Monday released footage showing correspondent Clarissa Ward and her colleagues taking cover as rockets were launched near the Israel-Gaza border. A manipulated version of the report went viral on social media, with audio edited over the video falsely suggesting a control room was directing a staged report.
The post was shared with the text: “CNN exposed for faking an attack in Israel.”
A CNN spokesperson said: “The audio in the video posted and shared on X is fabricated, inaccurate and irresponsibly distorts the reality of the moment that was covered live on CNN.”
