2013 video from Syria shared as Hamas attacking Israeli tanks

By: Rajini KG
November 8 2023

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Screenshot of the viral video circulating online. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts)

Context

A month into the war between Israel and Hamas, a video of a man throwing a grenade at an army tank is circulating on social media platforms with the claim that it shows an Israeli army tank being blown up. An X (Formerly Twitter) user shared the video on November 6, 2023, captioned and translated from Arabic, “Do you know how Hamas destroys tanks worth millions of dollars in Israel? Gaza Mujahideen are destroying Israeli tanks by carrying out similar attacks May Allah grant the Mujahideen a great victory as soon as possible.” The video shows a man throwing a grenade at an army tank, and as he runs away, the tank explodes, and a huge blaze erupts from the tank. The post garnered over 12,100 views and 800 likes. An archive of the post can be accessed here. 

Screenshot of the viral video circulating online. (Source: X/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the claim is false. The video is from Syria, not from the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The fact

The reverse image search led us to a video uploaded by a YouTube user called Araa TV on April 3, 2013. It was titled: “A member of the Free Army places a grenade in the gun of a Syrian tank. (roughly translated from Arabic).” At the timestamp of 0:04 seconds, in the top right corner, a text in Arabic appears, which translates to “Al-Qusayr - Homs countryside.”  Al-Qusayr is a city in the Homs region in Syria. 

We also found the same video on the YouTube channel of "AlArabiya Arabic," a TV channel based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, published on April 3, 2013.

Screenshot of the AlArabiya TV video posted on April 3, 2013. (Source: YouTube/Screenshot)

Further research led us to a news report dated April 6, 2013, published by Zaman Alwsl, a Syrian news media outlet, which reported on the incident. The report stated that a rebel from the Free Syrian Army detonated a bomb inside a T72 tank being operated by Syrian soldiers. AlAnba News, a Kuwaiti media outlet, also cited the screenshot from the video in an April 5, 2013, report and added that slogans of “Allah hu Akbar" were raised as the tank’s explosion was caught on camera.

The video was captured in 2013, during the protests that broke out against the Syrian government and President Bashar-Al-Assad over the lack of freedom and economic woes. Al Jazeera reports that in August 2011, a rebel group called the Free Syrian Army was formed to overthrow the government. While the U.S. backed the rebel groups, Russia backed Assad's government. The civil war is ongoing.

The verdict

A ten-year-old video from the Syrian civil war has been misrepresented as an Israeli tank blown up by "Mujahideens" operating in Gaza in 2023. This Is unrelated to the Israel-Hamas war.