Amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, an image of a white glowing object falling from the sky has gone viral on social media, with the claim that the image depicts the Israeli army attacking the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
A social media user shared the image with a caption, “How many war crimes before the @UN does something: intense israeli bombing with white phosphorus all around al-Shifa Hospital in #Gaza. (sic)”
SouthCheck found that the claim is misleading.
On doing a Yandex Reverse Image Search, we found the same image uploaded by a website, Human Voice, on August 13, 2017. According to the reports, an international coalition aircraft attacked several hospitals in Raqqa, Syria, with white phosphorous weapons.
We also found the same image uploaded by a Russian military forum, Military.Az, with a caption that reads, “Civil part in Syria.”
Another report suggested that the image is of the United States of America carrying out strikes on a residential area in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, using white phosphorus. The report was dated September 27, 2017.
A report by the Almayadeen, the Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila alleged that Israel bombed the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, in Gaza, with white phosphorus. However, since the viral image has been on the internet at least since 2017, we conclude that it doesn’t show the recent bombing of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
