Fact-Check: Old News Report on Tunnels Under Gaza Falsely Peddled as Recent

The video dates back to June 2021 and shows an RT journalist inside Al-Quds Brigade tunnels under Gaza.

A news report showing a man descending underground using rope to enter a series of tunnels is being shared on social media.

The claim: The video is being shared to claim that it shows the Hamas group letting a Russia Today (RT) journalist explore their underground tunnel network under Gaza, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

• The claim was shared by TV9 Network’s executive editor Aditya Raj Kaul on his X (formerly Twitter) account.

(Archives of posts sharing the same claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

But..?: The report dates back to June 2021 and is not related to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

How did we find out?: Using relevant keywords, we looked for more details about the report.

• This led us to a X post by RT Arabic’s account, which had shared a better quality version of the same video on 14 June 2021, as an RT exclusive of their team entering the Saraya al-Quds’ tunnels under Gaza.

• The group, also known as the Al-Quds Brigade, is the armed wing of Palestinian organisation Palestinian Islamist Jihad (PIJ), the second largest militant group in Gaza after Hamas.

• The video was also uploaded by an unverified YouTube channel called ‘Southern Women’ on 15 June 2021.

Conclusion: A 2021 RT news report on tunnels used by the Al-Quds Brigade under Palestine is being falsely shared as a recent video of Hamas tunnels under Gaza.

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