Footage shows Israeli helicopters shooting Israeli civilians at the Supernova music festival on 7 October.
False. The clip was shared by the Israel Defence Forces on 9 October, claiming it shows attacks in Gaza. It has also been geolocated to Gaza. There is extensive evidence Hamas is responsible for the attack at the music festival.
Posts circulating online falsely claim a video shows footage recorded from an Israeli helicopter shooting at civilians at the Supernova music festival in Israel on 7 October.
The short clip [WARNING: violent content] shows what appears to be infrared footage taken from an aircraft as it aims at targets on the ground.
One post has the caption: “Israel admits apache helicopters fired on their own israeli civilians running from the Supernova music festival [sic]”.
The claim has been shared widely across social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, with several posts claiming the footage is leaked from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
However, it is not true that the video shows Israeli helicopters shooting at civilians at the festival or that the footage was leaked.
The clip was posted on X by the IDF on 9 October as part of a longer video compilation. The caption says it shows Air Force planes “carrying out extensive attacks along the length and breadth of the Gaza Strip” (translated using Google).
The footage has also been geolocated at the fence between Israel and Gaza, but inside Gaza. The Supernova festival took place in Kibbutz Re’im in Israel, three miles from the Gaza border.
It has been widely reported that Hamas was responsible for the attack at the Supernova music festival, with evidence including footage and witness accounts.
It has been reported by the Israeli publication, Haaretz, that a police investigation allegedly found an IDF helicopter fired at some civilians at the festival, citing an unnamed Israeli police official as its source. However, both an IDF spokesperson and Israeli police have reportedly confirmed the investigation focused on police officers––not IDF activity––and did not provide any indication civilians were harmed due to aerial activity.
Full Fact has seen lots of misinformation relating to recent events in Israel and Gaza, including a large number of misleading images and videos. You can read our guide on how to fact check misleading videos relating to the conflict and find more of our work countering false claims on the subject here.
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Image courtesy of דוידי ורד |
Update 6 December 2023
This article was updated to include reports about the police investigation, which emerged after it was published.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the footage was posted by the IDF showing an attack on Gaza, it has been geolocated to Gaza, and evidence shows Hamas conducted the 7 October attack at the Supernova music festival.
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