Fact-Check: Old Video of Israeli Attack on Gaza Building Shared as Recent

This video dates back to May 2021 when Israeli airstrikes destroyed the 14-storey Al-Shorouq tower in Gaza City.

Fact-Check: This is not a recent incident. It happened in May 2021 when the Israeli forces attacked the Al-Shorouq tower in Gaza. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

A video showing an airstrike destroying a building is being shared on social media platforms.

What are the users saying?: Users have shared the video with the claim that it shows a recent airstrike by the Israeli forces that destroyed a building in Gaza.

Who shared it?: This video was shared by Ukraine's oldest newspaper, Kyiv Post on its official account. The post had 19.5K views at the time of writing this story.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

What is the truth?: While this video is of an airstrike conducted by Israel in Gaza, it is an old video.

• This video is from 12 May 2021 when the Israeli airstrikes destroyed the fourteen storey Al-Shorouq tower that housed offices of media organisations in Gaza City.

How did we find out?: We did a Google reverse image search and came across a video by Al Jazeera on its official YouTube channel dated 14 May 2021.

• The video on Al Jazeera's channel was the exact same as the viral video. Additionally, the viral video had the Al Jazeera watermark on its top left corner.

• Below is a comparison between the two videos.

Here is a comparison between the two videos. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

• The video was uploaded with the description that mentioned the collapse of the fourteen storey Al-Shorouq tower that was an office to media outlets in Gaza City. It was destroyed by the multiple Israeli air raids on 12 May 2021.

• Al-Shorouq tower was the third high rise building destroyed by the Israelis then.

• According to a Middle East Eye report, Israeli authorities had said that Hamas was using the building for military purposes.

• However, according to Palestine news agency WAFA, it noted, "No clear reason was seen for the bombing of high rises other than inflicting damage and hurting the population."

On the Israel and Palestine situation: This claim has surfaced at a time when Israel has declared that it is at war with Palestine after Hamas, a Palestinian liberation movement conducted a widespread military operation against Israel.

• According to the recent Al Jazeera live update, "Multiple Israeli air raids have just hit several locations in Gaza City."

• It reported that there are a 'large number of casualties at Gaza hospitals.

Conclusion: This is not a video from a recent Israeli airstrike in Gaza. It is from May 2021 when the Israeli forces attacked the Al-Shorouq tower in Gaza City.

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