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| - Fact Check: Viral clip of reporter dying on camera does not show recent casualty in Gaza
India Today found that this video from Gaza is almost a decade old and doesn't show the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7.
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India Today Fact Check
The video, while related to an Israel-Hamas conflict, is from 2014.
Disturbing and graphic videos and images of people getting bombed have flooded social media following Israel’s siege of Gaza in the aftermath of a Hamas attack on October 7. One such video purports to show the final moments of a journalist and a medic in Gaza following an Israeli air strike.
In the video, two men can be seen attempting to escape a conflict-ridden area. The person holding the camera can heard discussing their options for evading the shelling. Suddenly, there’s a loud noise and the camera falls to the ground. The lifeless hand of the cameraman can be seen as the recording continues. The on-screen text then reads, “Both Fouad Jaber and Khaled Hamad were killed by this missile. Khaled's camera continued to record after he died."
“In two weeks we have witnessed heartbreak after heartbreak, and this footage adds to another horror, killed in the line of duty,” read one X post sharing the video. The archived version of such posts can be seen here and here.
India Today, in its investigation, found that while the video is indeed related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, it’s almost a decade old.
Our Probe
We noticed Al Jazeera's logo in the video's lower-left corner. With the help of a keyword search, we found the same footage in an Al Jazeera documentary that was uploaded to its YouTube channel in July 2016. According to the channel, this footage was recorded in 2014, during Israel's Operation Protective Edge, which was initiated to halt alleged rocket fire from Gaza. The two individuals seen in the video, according to Al Jazeera, were video journalist Khaled Hamad and medic Fouad Jaber.
This incident reportedly took place in Shuja'iyya, one of the Gaza Strip's most densely populated neighbourhoods. Israel had asserted that Shuja'iyya harboured Hamas "terror tunnels". At that time, Hamad, 24, was employed by a local media company in Gaza City known as Continue Production Films.
According to a report by the Electronic Intifada, Hamad resided in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. On the day of his tragic death, July 20, 2014, he was travelling in an ambulance to the Shuja'iyya district of Gaza City. He was making a documentary, focusing on the work of paramedics during Israel's offensive against Gaza. This account was also confirmed by the company's owner, Alaa Alool, to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent nonprofit organisation dedicated to promoting press freedom.
As detailed by Alool, Hamad was accompanying an ambulance in Shijaiyah when it was hit by a shell fired by Israeli forces. A second shell struck, leading to the unfortunate deaths of Hamad and Jaber. Hamad's camera never ceased recording, even after he was struck, and it continued to roll long after he took his final breath.
On that fateful day, more than 60 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers were reportedly killed in the clashes that unfolded between Israeli and Hamas forces in Shuja'iyya.
It is hence clear that the video in question is nearly a decade old and not related to the present conflict between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7, 2023.
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