Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 27/11/2023; Author: Žan Premrov
A video posted on Facebook by the Cirkulane local chapter of the Democratic Party (SDS) shows an Israeli police raid in Beitunia, a town in the West Bank, in August this year.
“There is also arms trade ongoing under the Gaza hospital,” claimed the Cirkulane local chapter of the SDS on Facebook on 14 November. They posted a video showing people in military protective gear inspecting weapons and other military equipment.
An analysis of the footage using TinEye, an online tool for verifying the origin of images, shows that the footage was posted on social network X on 31 August this year. Israel declared a state of war on 8 October in retaliation for the 7 October terrorist attacks by Hamas.
On 16 November, the authenticity of the video was also checked by the Indian fact-checking portal Factly.in, which, like Oštro, is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) Code of Conduct. They were checking a Facebook user’s claim that the video was taken at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza and determined that this is not true.
The video was posted on 31 August by Hanan Amuir, an Israeli journalist and editor of Presspectiva. He explained that it was taken on 31 August in Ramallah. Razkrinkavanje.si wrote to Amuir for further information about the video but is yet to receive a response.
On 1 September, the day after Amuir’s post, the Israeli police released footage of several raids in Beitunia, a West Bank town near Ramallah. Comparison with a video posted by the Cirkulane local chapter of the SDS confirmed that it shows one of the Israeli police raids in Beitunia.
Comparison of Israeli police footage (1 September 2023) and footage of the SDS Cirkulane post (14 November 2023).
Rok Zupančič from the Department of Defence Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences explained to Razkrinkavanje.si that a part of the West Bank has been controlled by the Palestinian Fatah party for several years, and a part by Israel.
According to information by US Congressional Research Service, Hamas also has a presence in the West Bank.
On 14 November, the portal Moja Dolenjska reported on the weapons allegedly discovered by Israeli forces under a hospital in Gaza. The article featured the same video as the SDS Cirkulane post.
In a response to Razkrinkavanje.si, the Cirkulane local chapter said that the video was taken from the social network X. They added that they had deleted it from their Facebook page.
The Moja Dolenjska portal said that they would answer the questions “within the time frame determined by the Media Law.”
We consider the post by the Cirkulane local chapter of the SDS to be false according to the Razkrinkavanje.si methodology.