Video From Syria of Journalists 'Condoning' Bombings Shared as One From Gaza

This video shows Syrian journalists and is unrelated to Gaza or Palestine.

A video showing two men wearing vests with 'press' written on them, standing extremely close to active missiles is going viral on social media to claim that it shows Palestinian journalists from Gaza.

• The video also shows these journalists inspecting several missiles kept together.

(Archives of similar posts can be seen here and here.)

What is the truth?: This video is not from Gaza.

• It shows Syrian journalists in Idlib, Syria.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video and came across the original video shared on X (former Twitter).

• This was shared by a Syrian journalist, Jamil Alhasaan, on 7 October. He can also be seen in the viral video.

• The caption states in Arabic, "Targeting Qardaha in retaliation for the children of Idlib."

إن تكونوا تألمون فإنهم يألمون كما تألمون
استهداف #القرداحة ثأراً لأطفال #ادلب pic.twitter.com/3hRcG6UAOk

— جميل الحسن (@Jamil_Alhasaan) October 7, 2023

• He also posted a longer version of the same video on 7 October.

• The other journalist seen in the video, M Faisal, is also covering news from the ground in northern Syria.

• However, he did not post this viral video on his social media.

Moreover, we did not find any reports about these journalists being in Gaza.

Update about Syria: According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Syrian and Russian forces launched attacks on opposition-held northwest Syria starting from 5 October.

• This affected more than 2000 locations in Idlib and western Aleppo.

• The Human Rights Watch reported that the drone strike on 5 October at the Homs Military Academy killed 120 people.

• The report also added that cluster munition rockets landed in two residential blocks on 6 October.

More context about journalists in Gaza: According to Committee to Protect Journalists' data, at least 48 journalists and media workers were killed till 19 November.

• The death toll has crossed 13,000 since the war began on 7 October, with over 12,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank and 1,200 deaths in Israel.

We have reached out to the Syrian journalists to confirm and get further context about the video and the story would be updated once we receive a response.

Conclusion: Although we could not independently verify the context of the video, it is clear that it is from Syria and not from Gaza.

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