A video with the claim that Palestinian freedom fighters shot down four Israeli war helicopters in Gaza has been making rounds on the internet.
The video which was a 22-second footage was posted on the X app (formerly Twitter) by @Cricbaazharry.
The footage showed rockets bombing helicopters and there was a subscribe for more header floating on the clip with a caption that read:
#EXCLUSIVE : Palestinian freedom fighters shot down 4 Israeli war helicopters in Gaza. #Palestine #Israel #Hamas #Gaza #IsraelUnderAttack #Israel #OperationBorderWars #GazaUnderAttack #OperationAlAqsaStorm #Hamasattack #Gaza #Isreal #Hamas #Palestine #Palestinian #IronDome #Gaza #TelAviv #Israel #Hamas #Mossad #IsraelUnderAttack #AlAqsaFlood #TelAviv #Jerusalem #Iran #IStandWithIsrael #IsraelUnderFire #HamasTerrorists #War #AlMayadeen #AlAqsa #طوفان_الأقصى #الأهلي_الاتحا
The video has since garnered over 18,000 views since it was posted on Saturday, October 7, 2023.
Thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced as a result of the Israeli – Gaza conflict.
After a dare-devil attack on Israeli settlements by the militant Palestinian group, Hamas, on October 7, Israel declared war on the Gaza Strip, and now all eyes are more firmly fixed on the planned ground invasion of Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
CLAIM
Video shows Palestinian freedom fighters shot down four Israeli war helicopters.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
Using the InVid keyframes analysis tool to search for previous version of the video, it led us to the original version of the video on YouTube which is a 4 minutes 16 seconds footage posted by @SeveralSim, a realistic graphics gaming channel.
A look at the channel shows that they create realistic gaming content for game lovers.
The caption of the video on YouTube read:
Attack Helicopter shot down by Missile System – Ka 52 – Military Simulation – ARMA 3 Make sure to Subscribe and Like the Video for more Milsim Videos! 👍 I used ArmA 3 to create this Military Simulation. I really love to make this videos. I hope you like it too!!! Thanks you all for watching! Best ArmA 3 Mission.
Further checks by The FactCheckHub show that realistic graphic gaming content like this are usually used to amplify misinformation during war crisis.
VERDICT
The claim that video shows Palestinian freedom fighters shot down four Israeli war helicopters is false; the footage was extracted from a gaming YouTube channel.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected].
