A few days ago, a video went viral on social media platforms, claiming that a Palestinian woman was shot dead by Israeli security forces in the ongoing conflict in Israel. The video showed a woman walking towards a group of soldiers with a knife in her hand, ignoring their warnings and shots in the air, until she was shot in the chest and fell to the ground. The video was shared with captions such as “This is how Israel treats Palestinians” and “Another innocent victim of Israeli brutality”.
The video with the fake and misleading claim was widely shared by pro-Palestinian propagandists on social media platforms. Some of the accounts that posted the video with false captions were @shahdanwhoop, @HasratA97305093 and Zakir Ali Tyagi. Zakir, who is a self-proclaimed activist and journalist, later deleted his tweet after being exposed by the fact-checkers. These accounts tried to spread misinformation and incite hatred against Israel by using an old video from the West Bank.
The Actual Incident of Palestinian Woman Getting Shot
However, our fact-check revealed that this video is misleading and has nothing to do with the recent unrest in the country. The video is actually an old one from the West Bank, where Israeli security forces shot dead a Palestinian woman who tried to carry out a stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank, south of Jerusalem, on May 2, 2021.
We reverse-searched the frames of the video and found an article by the Times of Israel dated May 2, 2021, titled “Palestinian woman tries to stab soldiers in West Bank, is shot dead — IDF”. The article reported that the woman, identified as Fahima al-Hroub, 60, was taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center in critical condition, where she was later pronounced dead. The article also said that there were no casualties among the soldiers, according to the IDF.
The article quoted an IDF statement that said: “A terrorist armed with a knife arrived at the Gush Etzion Junction and tried to stab IDF fighters who were at the spot. A fighter initiated rules of engagement protocol that included gunshots toward the terrorist, who was neutralized.”
Intent & Conclusion
The video has been used by pro-Palestinian misinformation propaganda accounts and terrorist sympathizers to target Israel and safeguard the terror act done by Hamas and to blame Israel as the aggressor. This has been a constant trend all around the world among pro-Palestinian people who circulate fake and misleading images/clips/audio against Israel.
Therefore, it is clear that the video that has been shared with false claims is not related to the current situation in Israel, but is an old one from the West Bank. The video shows a Palestinian woman who attempted to stab Israeli soldiers and was shot dead by them in self-defence. 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.
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— D-Intent Data (@dintentdata) October 8, 2023
ANALYSIS: Misleading
FACT: A video has been shared claiming that a Palestinian woman was shot dead by Israeli Security Forces in the ongoing conflict in Israel. The fact is that this is an old video from the West Bank, (1/3) pic.twitter.com/FxS803Wr42
Claim: A video shows a Palestinian woman being shot dead by Israeli security forces in the ongoing conflict in Israel.
Fact: The video is an old one from the West Bank, where a Palestinian woman tried to stab Israeli soldiers and was shot dead by them in self-defence.
Also Read: Israel-Palestine: Old Video Of Building Destruction From Gaza Circulated as Recent: Fact-Check
