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A video claiming to show the location of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's assassination has gone viral on X (previously Twitter). This follows after the Haniyeh was reportedly assassinated in Tehran shortly after attending the inauguration ceremony for the new Iranian president.
An X user shared the video with the caption, "From the location where the Mujahid leader was targeted" (translated from Arabic using Google Translate).
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)
At the time of writing this report, the video has garnered over one million views across X.
What is the truth? The original video predates the incident by four months.
The video was first shared on X on 2 April .
How did we find the truth? We conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens.
We found an X post shared on 2 April, with a caption that stated, 'Until this moment, and after hours of Israeli airstrikes on the vicinity of the Iranian consulate in the Mezzeh neighbourhood of the capital Damascus, the search for additional casualties among the IRGC militias and other individuals is ongoing.'
This caption refers to the destruction of the Iranian consulate in Syria following a widely reported deadly air strike.
This predates the assassination by four months, making it impossible for the video to show the location where Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)
We also found news reports about the attack on generals in Syria, including one in BBC.
The original story was published by many reputable news sources, such as the BBC.
(Source: BBC/Screenshot)
More about Haniyeh's assassination:
Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, was assassinated in Tehran on 31 July by an explosive device smuggled into his guesthouse, an act linked to Israel, though they have not publicly claimed responsibility.
This incident, along with Israel's claim of killing Hamas commander Mohammed Deif in a 13 July air raid on Gaza, threatens to escalate violence in the Middle East and disrupt cease-fire negotiations in Gaza.
Conclusion: Clearly, this video has been shared with a false caption following the outrage regarding the assassination attempt.
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