Fact Check: Old video viral as Lebanese welcoming Israeli soldiers in fight against Hezbollah
A video of people welcoming Army soldiers on tanks with food and flags has gone viral. Those sharing the video claim it is from Lebanon where the citizens are welcoming the Israeli soldiers into the country to fight against Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party and military group.
A social media user shared the video and wrote, “Big Breaking: The people of Lebanon welcomed the Israeli defence force by waving Israeli flags, giving water bottles and breakfast to the soldiers and requesting the soldiers to free them from Hezbollah.” (Translated from Hindi)
SouthCheck found that the claim was false. The viral video is old and unrelated to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Lebanon.
On doing a Google reverse image search, we found the same video shared by an Instagram page on October 9, 2023. The caption read, “Nobody’s going to stop us!!! We shall win!!!! With Israel is strong!”
We compared both the videos and found them to be the same. In both videos, we can see people carrying food packets and throwing them towards the tanks, and while some are waiving Israeli flags.
Another website published a screenshot of the video with a caption suggesting that it showed citizens providing food to the Army men going for deployment. In the screenshot, we can see a woman wearing spectacles and cutting bread.
A Facebook page also shared the video with the title, ‘Israeli Civilians Distributing Food Items, Beverages And Water To The Israel Defence Forces, Who Are On Their Way To Gaza. (sic)’ In this video, you can also see people giving food packages to soldiers in the tank.
Another website published the video on October 9, 2023. The video was shared with a caption suggesting that the video shows the people of Israel cheering their Army. Even in this video, one can see people carrying Israel’s flag and distributing food to the Israeli soldiers.
While we couldn’t confirm the source of the original video yet, we can conclude that the viral video is old and unrelated to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
