Fact-Check: This Photo Does Not Show ‘Barib Yariel’, IDF Sniper Killed by Hamas

The photo has been on the internet since 2019. We found no record of 'Barib Yariel' among IDF's casualties.

This photo is being shared with the false claim that it shows IDF sniper Barib Yariel.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A photo showing a sniper on the ground has gone viral on social media, where users are claiming that it shows Barib Yariel, an expert Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) sniper, who was killed by Hamas.

An archive of this claim can be seen here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

At the time of writing this report, Hinkle's post had been viewed over 62 lakh times.

(Archives of more posts sharing the same claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

But..?: While the photo indeed shows an IDF soldier, it has been on the internet since 2019.

• Moreover, there are no reports of someone named Barib Yariel in the IDF being killed in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

• Responding to The Quint's email query, an IDF spokesperson confirmed that the story was fake.

How did we find out?: First, we ran a reverse image search on the viral photo of the soldier, who is being identified as Barib Yariel.

This led us to the same photo on Iranian news agency SNN's website, where it was shared on 3 October 2019, in an article about Palestinian youths being injured in IDF firing.

The image has been on the internet since 2019.

(Source: SNN/Altered by The Quint)

The photo was also shared in several articles over the years, in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Who is Barib Yariel?: Using the name as a search term, we looked for information on Barib Yariel on Google.

• With this, we saw that there was no sign of a person with this name on the internet, before 8 November.

• Additionally, we translated the name to Hebrew and ran a search with that, which returned similar results.

• We then added a site operator, so the results would only reflect this name on the IDF's website. This showed one result, but the search term was not present on the page.

We translated the name into Hebrew text, which returned no relevant results.

(Source: Google/Screenshot)

• A similar search in English and Hebrew text on IDF's list of casualties returned no results for Israeli military personnel with the name 'Barib Yariel'.

• We also went through the translated version of IDF's daily war reports, but none of them had this name.

• During our search, we came across a post on X, where several users said that the name was a made up and was neither an Hebrew nor Israeli name.

Several social media users mentioned that 'Barib Yariel' may not be a real name.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

The Quint reached out to the IDF over email, whose spokesperson confirmed that the story "is fake."

Conclusion: An old photo of an IDF soldier is being shared to claim that it shows one 'Barib Yariel', an expert sniper who was killed by Hamas.

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