Fact Check: NOT Israel-Hamas conflict! This video of choppers crashing is from 'ARMA 3'
Gameplay footage of an attack on helicopters from "ARMA 3" was falsely shared as visuals from the Israel-Palestine conflict.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from the “ARMA 3” video game and does not show a real incident.
A video making the rounds on social media shows multiple choppers shooting each other and crashing. Those sharing the clip claimed that this video was from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. An archived version of this post can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that this video was just footage from the video game “ARMA 3”.
Our Probe
We noticed that the viral video contained a blurry watermark at the bottom that read “BELAL The Gamer”. Using this clue, we found an extended version of the viral clip shared by a Facebook page of the same name.
This video was shared on August 7, 2023. This proves that the video predates the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, which began when Hamas launched a massive military operation in Israeli territory on October 7.
It is noteworthy that the video was added to a playlist called “ARMA 3”, in which we found several other videos of choppers being shot down in different settings, which resembled the viral clip. “ARMA 3” is an open-world video game. The post containing the viral clip itself stated that “BELAL The Gamer” was playing “ARMA 3”.
Footage from the same video game has gone viral as scenes from the Israel-Palestine conflict previously as well. A detailed report on such clips can be read here.
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