A few days ago, a disturbing video of a young child being beheaded by terrorists in Syria resurfaced on social media with a false claim that it was from the recent Israel-Palestine conflict. The video, which shows the terrorists chanting religious slogans while killing the child, was shared by some users to spread hatred and propaganda against a particular community. However, this video is not recent and has nothing to do with the ongoing violence in Israel. It is an old video from 2016 when a rebel group in Syria executed a child soldier near Aleppo.
Background
The video was shared by a Twitter user [@MrSinha_], who later deleted his tweet. The tweet claimed that the video showed Hamas terrorists beheading an Israeli child in Gaza. The tweet also used hashtags like #IsraelUnderAttack and #IsraelUnderFire to support Israel’s military actions against Hamas. The tweet received over 2,000 retweets and 4,000 likes before it was deleted. (Check Archive)
The same video was also shared by other users on Facebook and WhatsApp with similar claims. Some of them even added graphic images of the beheaded child to make the video more sensational and shocking.
Fact-Check of Syria child beheaded by terrorists
A reverse image search of the video led us to an article by The Daily Beast (archive), published on April 13, 2017, titled “U.S.-Backed ‘Moderate’ Rebels Beheaded a Child Near Aleppo”. The article reported that the video was from July 2016, when a rebel group called Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenk (Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement) executed a young boy named Abdullah Issa in Handarat, near Aleppo. The boy was reportedly a fighter for Liwa al-Quds (Jerusalem Brigade), a Palestinian militia that supports the Syrian government.
Conclusion
Therefore, it is clear that the video of a child being beheaded by terrorists in Syria is not from the current Israel-Palestine conflict, but from an incident that happened in 2016 near Aleppo. The video has been falsely circulated with a misleading claim to incite hatred and violence against a particular community. Following a precise analysis and fact-checking, our team has reviewed the claim. You can refer to the findings of this inquiry in the Twitter thread below.
Claim: A video shows Hamas terrorists beheading an Israeli child in Gaza.
Fact: The video is from 2016 when a rebel group in Syria beheaded a young boy near Aleppo.
Also Read: Propagandists Circulate Proposal Map of India Before Partition as Official Map: Fact-Check
