Israel-Hamas war: Fireworks displays and computer games among fake conflict videos viewed millions of times on social media
False videos, pictures and information have sprung up on social media since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel last weekend which sparked retaliation strikes on the Gaza Strip.
Fireworks displays, excerpts from video games and clips posted months ago are among the false material seen and shared by millions of people on sites like X, formerly Twitter, and TikTok, purporting to show scenes from the conflict.
Social media platforms are under pressure from the UK and EU governments to combat misinformation and violent content on their platforms following the Hamas raid in Israel on Saturday.
But countless false videos purporting to show events in Israel and Gaza remain easily accessible across TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, with some clocking up tens of millions of views.
“It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before,” said Achiya Schatz, executive director of the Israeli fact-checking NGO Fake Reporter.
One of the most prolific videos we’ve seen falsely claiming to show events from the past few days is pictured below, showing fireworks in an urban area.
At the time of writing, a compilation of footage that uses this clip was the top liked video on TikTok when searching for the word “Gaza”.
The video has garnered 2.9 million likes and over 59 million views altogether.
It’s also been shared on other platforms. On X, multiple users posted the video falsely claiming it shows Israel bombing Gaza with phosphorus. Taken together, these posts have been viewed over a million times.
A reverse image search of the footage’s key frames, however, reveal that it had been shared on the internet before Saturday’s events unfolded.
One user posted it on TikTok on 2 October and another shared it on YouTube on 28 September – meaning the footage existed well before the conflict between Israel and Hamas started.
A series of very similar videos posted to X in June show celebrations in Algiers, Algeria after the win of the football team CR Belouzidad.
The clip was removed from TikTok after Sky News reported it to them.
But not all of the widely-shared false clips require as many steps to reveal them as unrelated to the situation in Israel and Gaza.
Another video shared on X by the American-Israeli lawyer and Republican representative Marc Zell claimed to show a Hamas militant with a Jewish girl he said had been kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
The clip he shared had been viewed over 1.1 million times, while two other posts that repeated the claims also garnered over one million views each.
The video comes with a TikTok watermark which states the name of the account the video was posted by. A brief search on the short form video app shows the video was posted by the user back in September – rendering the claim that it shows a kidnapped child in Gaza impossible.
The clip has since been deleted by its original poster, but it continues to be reshared elsewhere with the false context attached.
X has issued a “community note” on some of the most widely-shared iterations of the video on its platform, which is a comment underneath certain posts outlining further context.
If enough users add notes with additional information underneath a particular post, the note will appear visible to all who read it.
The ‘Community Note’ shared under Marc Zell’s post. Pic: X
In this case, users were advised that the clip posted by Mr Zell is unrelated to the conflict in Israel and Gaza. However, other posts using the video and false information remain on X without this additional context.
X today said that its community notes team had been bolstered after the EU issued a warning regarding the spread of misinformation on its platform.
Computer-generated material taken from video games has also proliferated online in the days since the latest fighting in Israel and Gaza broke out.
Sky News found one clip – originally from the combat game Arma 3 – shared on X, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube all claiming to show Hamas militants shooting down Israeli helicopters.
A close look at the video displays clear signs that it is computer generated. The objects lack shadows, and appear cartoonish.
A reverse image search of one of the video’s keyframes alongside the word “video game” reveals images of similar scenes from a game called Arma 3.
A search for the terms “Arma 3 helicopter shot down” reveal a series of clips, including one posted on YouTube February 2023 that matches the clip claimed to be from Gaza.
The same clip from the video game Arma 3 was posted on YouTube shorts in February of this year. Pic: YouTube
On X, the most-viewed posts that use the video carry a community note explaining that the video is not from Israel or Gaza.
However, they’ve still amassed millions of views on the platform. One post has garnered over 2.6 million, while another clip also from Arma 3 but purporting to show Gaza has clocked up over 10.9 million views.
‘It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before’
Achiya Schatz is the executive director of the NGO Fake Reporter, a disinformation watchdog in Israel that asks users to report online falsehoods to them.
He says the amount of misinformation and hateful material surfacing online in the days since the attacks is remarkable.
“It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” he told Sky News.
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Debunking myths of misinformation online
Schatz says that the lack of communication from the Israeli government during the Hamas attack’s initial stages created an information void that, combined with the shock of the attack, became filled with false information and conspiracy theories.
“In terms of the reports we receive from the public, X is definitely at the top,” he told Sky News.
Many of the most widely-shared posts we encountered in our research were made by accounts subscribed to X Premium, the paid-for service that offers users perks including content promotion and financial compensation for posts that perform well.
Using the social listening platform TalkWalker, Sky News analysed the top posts across X, TikTok and YouTube that used the Arabic hashtag “Al Aqsa Flood” – the name given by Hamas to Saturday’s attack.
The post using the hashtag with the highest engagement was from an X Premium user making the unsubstantiated claim that the Emir of Qatar had threatened to halt global gas supplies if the bombing of Gaza did not cease.
This unsubstantiated claim received the highest engagement of any post under the Arabic hashtag for ‘Al Aqsa Flood’. Pic: X
“It was claimed that the Premium option would reduce malicious content. But the truth is, we see paid services that are carrying conspiracies and messages promoting violence. It seems like the structure of content moderation is not sufficiently built and capable to serve the users,” he said.
Meta and X have responded to pressure from the UK and EU regarding the proliferation of misinformation on their platforms, with both companies saying they are putting additional resources towards addressing the situation.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, says it is investigating the material found by Sky News.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
Ryanair has reported another year of record profits and passenger numbers.
The average fare at the airline, which is Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, was 21% more expensive than 12 months earlier, its annual results showed.
But the company suggested a cut in ticket prices could be on the way after this summer when prices will either be the same or more expensive than last year.
Annual profits reached €1.92bn (£1.64bn), surpassing the previous record of €1.45bn (£1.26bn) made in the year ending March 2018.
Passenger numbers also outpaced previous all-time highs and are now well above pre-pandemic numbers at 184 million – a rise of 23% on the pre-COVID year of 2019.
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Ticket prices
Those passengers paid fares costing an average of 21% more than the year up to March 2023 but Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said if the company has to cut fares to have planes 94% full next April, May and June “then so be it”.
While demand is “strong” for summer flights and its summer schedule will operate over 200 new routes, the low-cost carrier said it remained “cautiously optimistic that peak summer 2024 fares will be flat to modestly ahead of last summer”.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Boeing headwinds
The passenger increase has come despite Boeing‘s delays in delivering new planes to the airline.
Ryanair had staked a large part of its financial success on expansion through 300 new 737 MAX 10 aircraft.
But the plane manufacturer has been beset by delays amid regulatory and media scrutiny of safety at its manufacturing sites after a door blew off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet.
There’s a risk those delays “could slip further”, Mr O’Leary said.
But Ryanair said it would receive “modest compensation” from Boeing for the delays.
The no-frills carrier also said its fuel bill rose 32% to €5.14bn (£4.4bn).
Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told Sky News that Britain is ready for a change of government after scolding the Conservatives over their handling of the economy and immigration after Brexit.
While insisting his petrochemicals conglomerate INEOS is apolitical, Sir Jim backed Brexit and spent last weekend with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Manchester United – the football club he now runs as minority owner.
“I’m sure Keir will do a very good job at running the country – I have no questions about that,” Sir Jim said in an exclusive interview.
“There’s no question that the Conservatives have had a good run,” he added. “I think most of the country probably feels it’s time for a change. And I sort of get that, really.”
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Sir Jim was a prominent backer of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum but now has issues with how Brexit was delivered by Tory prime ministers.
“Brexit sort of unfortunately didn’t turn out as people anticipated because… Brexit was largely about immigration,” Sir Jim said.
“That was the biggest component of that vote. People were getting fed up with the influx of the city of Southampton coming in every year. I think last year it was two times Southampton.
“I mean, no small island like the UK could cope with vast numbers of people coming into the UK.
“I mean, it just overburdens the National Health Service, the traffic service, the police, everybody.
“The country was designed for 55 or 60 million people and we’ve got 70 million people and all the services break down as a consequence.
“That’s what Brexit was all about and nobody’s implemented that. They just keep talking about it. But nothing’s been done, which is why I think we’ll finish up with the change of government.”
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UK needs to get ‘sharper on the business front’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has indicated an election is due this year but Monaco-based Sir Jim is unimpressed by the Conservatives’ handling of the economy.
“The UK does need to get a bit sharper on the business front,” he said. “I think the biggest objective for the government is to create growth in the economy.
“There’s two parts of the economy, there’s the services side of the economy and there’s the manufacturing side. And the manufacturing, unfortunately, has been sliding away now for the last 25 years.
“We were very similar in scale to Germany probably 25 years ago.
“But today we’re just a fraction of where Germany is and I think that isn’t healthy for the British economy… particularly when you think the north of England is very manufacturing based, and that talks to things like energy competitiveness, it talks to things like, why do you put an immensely high tax on the North Sea?
“That just disincentivises people from finding hydrocarbons in the North Sea, in energy.
“And what we need is competitive energy. So I mean, in America, in the energy world, in the oil and gas world, they just apply a corporation tax to the oil and gas companies, which is about 30%. And in the UK we’ve got this tax of 75% because we want to kill off the oil and gas companies.
“But if we don’t have competitive energy, we’re not going to have a healthy manufacturing industry. And that just makes no sense to me at all. No.”
‘We’re apolitical’
Asked about INEOS donating to Labour, Sir Jim replied: “We’re apolitical, INEOS.
“We just want a successful manufacturing sector in the UK and we’ve talked to the government about that. It’s pretty clear about our views.”
Sir Jim was keener to talk about the economy and politics than his role at struggling Manchester United, which he bought a 27.7% stake in from the American Glazer family in February – giving him an even higher business profile.
Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. Pic: AP
Push for stadium of the North
He is continuing to push for public funds to regenerate Old Trafford and the surrounding areas despite no apparent political support being forthcoming. Sir Keir was hosted at the stadium for a Premier League match last weekend just as heavy rain exposed the fragility of the ageing venue.
“There’s a very good case, in my view, for having a stadium of the North, which would serve the northern part of the country in that arena of football,” Sir Jim said. “If you look at the number of Champions League the North West has won, it’s 10. London has won two.
“And yet everybody from the North has to get down to London to watch a big football match. And there should be one [a large stadium] in the North, in my view.
“But it’s also important for the southern side of Manchester, you know, to regenerate.
“It’s the sort of second capital of the country where the Industrial Revolution began.
“But if you have a regeneration project, you need a nucleus or a regeneration project and having that world-class stadium there, I think would provide the impetus to regenerate that region.”
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