False: This video does not show Hamas soldiers fighting in suicide vehicles
A Weibo user posted a video on Nov. 22 and claimed it shows two Hamas members who committed suicide attacks against an Israeli convoy.
The clip features two soldiers sitting in armored vehicles speaking to the camera in the first 30 seconds, followed by drone footage showing car bombs exploding in a war-torn area in 41 seconds.
The user said in Chinese, “young Hamas warriors drove a vehicle carrying explosives and crashed it into Israeli convoy,” and suggested that the video was the last footage before the soldiers “headed to the front.”
At the time of writing, the post has about 900 likes and over 70 shares on Weibo.
However, this video is not related to the Israel-Hamas war.
The video combined two separate clips produced by the Islamic State group (ISIS), both of which have been available on the internet for at least six years.
Through reverse image search, Annie Lab found a longer version of the first part uploaded to the Iranian video-sharing platform Aparat in October 2016. Its title in Persian, “انتحاری های دولت اسلامی” suggests the video shows “Islamic State suicide bombers.”
(Annie Lab decided not to provide the link to the footage, considering the provocative nature of the content)
Two logos appear in the 2016 video, which were obscured in the Weibo version.
One of which features the ISIS flag (the image below).
The other logo found on the dated video says “NINAWA,” which is the name of a province in Northern Iraq, a place where “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device” were being made, according to an article written by Hugo Kaaman, an independent open-source researcher and an expert in car bombs.
According to CNN, Ninawa’s capital Mosul was seized by ISIS in 2014. The video was posted in October 2016, the month Iraq was joined by the US-led international coalition to begin the Battle of Mosul to take back the city.
The Iraqi government announced victory in July 2017, although minor clashes were reported periodically after that.
The second part of the Weibo video features drone footage of car bomb attacks.
By searching “Islamic State” on the Internet Archive and narrowing down the year range to 2016-2018, Annie Lab found a 44-minute documentary that included a 40-second clip identical to the one used in the Weibo clip.
(Annie Lab decided not to provide the link to the footage, considering the provocative nature of its content)
According to the description, this 2017 video shows “Ninawa Wilayah” (Wilayah is an Arabic word meaning “territory”).
The logos of Ninawa Wilayah and ISIS appeared during the opening credit.
Although Annie Lab could not geolocate the exact location, the logos indicate it was filmed in Ninawa.
