Video Of Tower Collapse In Gaza Is Not From Hamas’ Recent Attack On Israel

An old video of a multi-storey tower collapsing in Gaza is being shared as recent amid the fresh attack on Israel launched by the Palestinian militant group, Hamas on Saturday. Social media posts have claimed that the video shows Israel's retaliation in Gaza.

BOOM found that the clip is from 2021 when a building in Gaza collapsed during an Israeli air strike in the city.

On October 7, militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel by firing more than thousands of rockets from the Gaza strip and infiltrated into southern Israel as part of operation 'Al-Aqsa Storm'. Hamas has claimed that the attacks are a consequence of the desecration of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the increased threat of Israeli settlers against Palestinians. At least 40 casualties have been reported so far, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a 'state of war' and responded by launching an air strike against Hamas, having already attacked the militant group's military compounds and operational headquarters in Gaza.

The 1-minute video of the building collapsing after being hit by multiple rockets is being shared with the caption, "Palestine has invited its doom! In today’s episode of f*Ck around & find out,brought to you by #Mossad/ #Israel. We Indians know it’s not Islamists vs Zionists; it’s Humanity vs Terrorists. May Allah help Netanyahu finish off Islamic terrorism from #Gaza." (sic)

Click here to view the post and here for an archive.

A caption on Facebook reads, "Israel strikes back hard. 🇮🇱"

Click here to view the post.

FACT CHECK

BOOM found that the video is old and not recent, it shows the Al-Shorouq Tower in Gaza collapsing following an air strike by Israel in 2021.

We ran a reverse image search on Google of some key frames from the video and found a post on X by Al Jazeera shared on May 13, 2021. The visuals in this clip by Al Jazeera were an exact match to the viral video. The caption read, "This is the moment the 14-storey al-Shorouq tower, housing media offices in Gaza City, was completely destroyed by multiple Israeli air raids on Wednesday."

Similar reports by CBC News, CNN, and Reuters can be seen here.

This is not the first time the Al-Aqsa mosque has been a reason for unrest between the two countries. The May 2021 conflict between Palestine and Israel began after a police raid at the mosque, which is regarded as the third holiest site in Islam. The raid led to the Hamas group attacking Israel with a barrage of rockets and the latter responded by launching air and ground military action on Palestine's coastal territory. The viral video of the Al-Shorouq tower is from one of these air strikes by Israel. The conflict in May 2021 lasted for 11 days, and at least 230 Palestinians and 12 Israelis were killed.