Fact-Check: Old Video From Algeria Shared as Israel's Attack on Gaza

The video is reportedly from Algeria and shows fans of football club CR Belouizdad celebrating.

Fact-Check: This video is not from Gaza, but Algeria. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

A video showing a "red sky" and fires across several buildings is being shared with the claim that it is one from the Gaza Strip.

What are the users saying?: Social media users have written that it is Israeli forces' "great retaliation" to Hamas' aggression.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

This post had 815.6K and 308.1K views, respectively, at the time of writing the story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

What is the truth?: This video is not from Gaza.

• It shows football club CR Belouizdad's fans celebrating their victory with flares and firecrackers.

• The photos showing the yellow flare across the sky are recent pictures taken by news agency Agence France-Presse's (AFP) Gaza-based photographer, Mahmud Hans.

How did we find out?:

1. "RED SKY" VIDEO:

• Using a virtual private network (VPN), we accessed TikTok and found a video by a user @memedkedir who had uploaded the same visual as the viral video. However, the video on TikTok was uploaded six days ago, that is, on 3 October.

• Israel declared war on Palestine on began on 7 October after the Hamas attack took place on 6 October.

Here is an archive of the TikTok video. 

(Source: TikTok/Screenshot) 

• In other TikTok posts with the video, we found several comments that linked the viral video to Algeria football club fans celebrating their victory with flares and firecrackers.

• Swipe right to see the comments.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

This comment has been translated from Russian to English. 

An archive of the post can be found here. 

• To see whether such celebrations had taken place in Algeria, we conducted a Google reverse image search and came across a similar video on football club CR Belouizdad's YouTube page uploaded on 19 July.

• It was titled "Ultras Fanatic Reds: The Celebration of Champions." (translated from French to English). It had similar visuals of red flares and firecrackers like the viral video.

• We also came across a video by a sports website, Yallakora, uploaded on their YouTube channel on 16 July.

• It was captioned with the title, "A bit of madness. The stars light up the Algerian sky as CR Belouizdad fans celebrate the league title." (translated from Arabic to English)

• It also had similar visuals of red flares and firecrackers like the viral video.

Here is the link to the video. 

(Source: Yallakora/YouTube) 

• We found an old news report by The Daily Mail from 2017 noting the usage of red flares to celebrate CR Belouizdad's win.

2. PHOTOS:

• The photos shared by users are indeed recent visuals captured by news agency AFP photographer Mahmud Hans.

• The photographer shared the images on their Instagram account and mentioned that they were captured on 8 October.

• AFP also shared one of the images of their official Instagram account, mentioning that it was taken on 8 October.

Here is a screenshot of the AFP post.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot) 

Present situation between Israel and Palestine: Al Jazeera noted Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest comment, “What Hamas will experience will be difficult and terrible … we are going to change the Middle East,” 

• The death toll in Palestine has risen to 1,500.

• Al Jazeera reported Israel has attacked the Gaza Strip for the third consecutive day after declaring war against the militant group Hamas.

• Major fighting has continued in three areas of southern Israel, Ashkelon and Sderot.

Conclusion: The viral video does not show violence in Gaza. It shows Algerian FC CR Belouizdad's fans celebrating its win.

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