The Israeli government posted a more than two-year-old video apparently from Syria, claiming it was from Gaza, in order to justify its ongoing bombing campaign that has killed dozens of Palestinians since Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arabic spokesperson Ofir Gendelman tweeted a 28-second video on Tuesday.

The video shows the rapid firing of rockets from next to what looks like an apartment building.

“Another video showing how Hamas is firing rockets at Israel from populated areas in the Gaza Strip,” Gendelman wrote.

He then accused Hamas, the Palestinian resistance faction that governs Gaza’s internal affairs, of “targeting civilians while using them as human shields.”

The words “Gaza now” are watermarked on the video in English and Arabic.

Another video showing how
Hamas is firing rockets at Israel from populated areas in the Gaza Strip. This is a double war crime: targeting civilians while using them as human shields.

1/3 of these 250+ rockets fell inside the Gaza Strip, killing Palestinians. #GuardiansOfTheWalls pic.twitter.com/GP9Hh52RW6

— Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) May 11, 2021
But there is one problem: The video is old and does not appear to originate from the Gaza Strip.
The exact same video, just two seconds longer, had been posted on YouTube on 22 December 2019 by a user who indicated that it was filmed in Maarrat al-Numan, a city in northeastern Syria.

The same video was also posted on YouTube on 26 June 2018 by at least two different users, both indicating it shows rockets being fired towards the Daraa region in southwestern Syria.

Screencapture of a tweet
Screenshot of a now-deleted tweet by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arabic spokesperson Ofir Gendelman after Twitter labeled it as featuring “manipulated media.”
Other journalists have similarly confirmed the video to be from 2018.

Although it’s difficult to determine where the video came from with absolute certainty, its emergence on the internet without doubt predates Israel’s current aggression in Gaza by years.

The original video contains no watermark or text suggesting any connection with Gaza, and there is no indication that this video is connected to the territory beyond Gendelman’s tweet.

This is a familiar propaganda tactic.

During Israel’s massive bombing campaign in Gaza in July 2014, Israel supporters widely shared a video claiming to show “Hamas using children as human shields.”

The video showed a man firing a mortar. Behind him was a group of small children huddled with an older man.

But this too was a video from the civil war in Syria, with no connection to Gaza.

Video Source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&;v=JoK3zxum2l4
Barq News Jun 26, 2018

Source https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-posts-fake-videos-justify-gaza-slaughter