A video showing people praying at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem has surfaced online with a claim that it shows Palestinians cheering after Iran attacked Israel on April 13, 2024.
The ICIR reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, on April 13, 2024 launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel in an attack that may trigger a major conflict escalation between the two countries.
The massive aerial attack marks the first direct strike by Iran on Israeli territory from the Iranian soil. Iran called the attack “Operation True Promise.”
An X user, @Sprinterfactory posted the video with a caption that read:
“Palestinians celebrate at Al-Aqsa Mosque after hearing the news of Iran’s attack on Israel.”
The post has generated over 3,000 reposts and more than 15,000 likes as of April 19, 2024.
Another X user, @franchez_25 posted the same footage with another caption thus:
“The joy of Palestinians in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque when they heard the news of Iran’s attack on Israel; World War III.”
The post has also been circulated widely.
CLAIM
Video shows Palestinians cheering Iran’s attack on Israel at Al-Aqsa mosque.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
The FactCheckHub subjected keyframes in the video to a Google reverse image search and the result shows that the video has been online before the attack on April 13.
An earlier version of the video was posted by this Turkish X account on April 5, 2024 with a translated caption: “Jerusalem is on the rise.”
Similarly, the voice-over in the video can be heard in this YouTube video published over 6 years ago.
This suggests that the video was taken on the last Friday of the recently concluded Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
According to an AFP report published by France24, some 120,000 people visited the Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday, April 5, 2024, to mark Laylat al-Qadr, which means “The Night of Destiny”. The night is usually within the last 10 days of Ramadan and is considered very important by Muslims worldwide.
The night is believed to be when the Quran was revealed to Prophet Mohammed.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows Palestinians cheering after Iran attacked Israel on April 13, 2024, is MISLEADING; findings show that the video had been online before the incident.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
