Fact-Check: Old Visuals of Tunnels Found in Gaza Strip Falsely Shared as Recent

These visuals are old and unrelated to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Fact-Check: Old visuals of tunnels from Gaza is going viral as recent images released by IDF.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A set of six photos showing a tunnel system are going viral on social media to claim that these are the recent visuals of released by the Israeli forces.

The claim also states that these tunnels build by the Hamas group and they have build around 1300 tunnels in total which span for 500 Km and 80 m underground.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

This claim shared by an user Mario Nawfal had garnered views around 3.9 million at the time of writing this story.

(Archives of similar posts can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: These visuals are old and not related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

• These images date back to 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2018.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on each of them and came across old instances when each of them was shared.

IMAGE 1:

• We found an article by BBC News published on 22 November 2013.

• It mentions that a 1.7 km tunnel under Israel's border with Gaza was discovered and the Israeli forces were inspecting the tunnel.

This image is from 2013.

(Source: BBC/screenshot)

• The picture was credited to Reuters and the we found the original source on Reuters' photo archive.

• It also mentions that Israeli soldiers were inspecting a tunnel near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, just outside the southern Gaza Strip on 13 October 2013.

This image is from Gaza.

(Source: Reuters/screenshot)

IMAGE 2:

• We found this image on a report by The Times of Israel shared on 7 March 2015.

• The image caption stated that it captured a Palestinian youth crawling in a tunnel at a training camp organised by the Hamas group on 29 January 2015.

• It also stated the location to be Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

• We also found the original picture on Agence France-Presse (AFP) which stated the same details.

This image is from 2015.

(Source: AFP/screenshot)

IMAGE 3:

• We came across the official website of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) which carried the same image.

• The report was published on 31 August 2014 and mentioned that this image shows the entry point to one of the tunnels built by the Hamas group.

• It adds that the IDF had "uncovered dozens of terror tunnels in Gaza" which are usually hidden under civilian structures or open areas.

This image is from 2014.

(Source: IDF /screenshot)

IMAGE 4:

• The search results led us to a report by the The Jerusalem Post shared on 21 March 2011.

• The report mentioned about tunnels built by Hamas in Gaza.

• The image was also uploaded by Reuters.

• This was shared on 22 June 2010 and the caption stated that the image shows a Palestinian sitting s in a smuggling tunnel beneath the Egyptian-Gaza border in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

This image is from 2010.

(Source: Reuters/screenshot)

IMAGE 5:

• We came across a report published by Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 21 March 2014.

• The report stated that IDF uncovered the opening of a tunnel built by "terrorists" near Israeli civilian communities.

This image is from 2014.

(Source: Israel Govt /screenshot)

IMAGE 6:

• This image was shared by Cable News Network (CNN) on 14 January 2018 where the report stated that the Israeli forces destroyed a tunnel that stretched from Gaza under Israel and into Egypt.

• Similar visuals were also carried by IDF on 14 January 2018.

This image is from 2018.

(Source: CNN /screenshot)

Conclusion: Old visuals of tunnels from Gaza is going viral as recent images released by IDF.

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