2018 Mexico video falsely viral as Hamas killing pregnant woman, unborn child

Trigger Warning: Graphic Descriptions of Violence

The story uses only screenshots and not actual tweets in view of the graphic nature of the viral video.

Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, a video depicting a man disembowelling a person alive has gone viral on social media. Social media users shared the video claiming that Hamas militants had cut open an Israeli pregnant woman, killed her unborn child, and taped her mouth so that she couldn’t scream.

The viral video begins with the text superimposed on it, stating, “THE NEXT VIDEO SHOWS ONE OF THE MOST HORRIFIC TERROR FOOTAGE KNOWN TO MANKIND. IT’S EXTREMELY HARD TO WATCH BUT IN ORDER TO KNOW THE TRUTH, YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT!” The video claims that on October 7, “a group of Hamas terrorists entered the Israeli Kibutz Be’eri, encountering a pregnant woman, her mouth was taped so she would not scream and they cut out her unborn child while she was alive.” The clip of the person being disembowelled alive is then juxtaposed with a clip from i24 NEWS with a text superimposed on it, stating, “This is the testimony of a paramedic who handled the victims’ bodies”. The man in this clip (from i24 NEWS) says, “When I go in the house, I see a woman on the stomach. When I turn her over, I see the stomach open…a baby attached to the cord of the mother and stabbed.”

The executive director of The Lawfare Project and civil-rights lawyer, Brooke Goldstein, shared the viral video on X with the caption, “WARNING: this is the worst video I have ever seen in my life. This is what Palestinian Hamas Nazis do to a pregnant woman. Share it so the world sees what Israel must eliminate. Share it so that the Hamas Holocaust deniers are shown as frauds. Share it before it’s taken down. Share it so the world sees what pro-Hamas groups on college campuses and on the street are celebrating. #HamasHolocaust” The tweet has over 1,78,000 views. Goldstein later deleted the tweet.

An unverified Facebook Page called, “Brooke Goldstein” also shared the video with the caption, “This is the most horrific video that I have seen what the Hamas Nazis have done to a pregnant woman, cut her stomach open while she was alive. Share this before Insta takes it down. The world must see it.” (Archive)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

X user @Tz4H1e_r1g4t also shared the video with the caption, “Warning Horrific documentation not recommended. Hamas filmed themselves, cutting a pregnant woman’s fetus, beating her and stabbing her while her mouth was taped so she couldn’t scream. The world denies the brutality, claims it is a “war of freedom,” but we will continue to show the world. There was a real holocaust here.” (Archive)

Fact Check

First, we broke down the viral video into key-frames using Invid software and then reverse-searched one of them on Google. This led us to a 2018 report containing the original video, ‘Horrifying video where Mayo Zambada Hitmen removed the heart of one subject and decapitated another.‘, which states, “The video broadcast on the web shows the moment in which the young man’s heart is tortured and taken out while another mutilated man lies lying down. According to the report, both belong to the criminal group “Guerrerense Guard”.

We compared the viral video and the video included in this report frame by frame and found that they were the same. We have not included the detailed comparison here in view of the graphic nature of the clips.

The report further added, “One of the victims is decapitated by the hitmen, who continue filming the actions, however, the second of the men had an even worse death, as part of his thorax and stomach were torn off with sharp weapons while he was still alive…The video has been distributed on social networks and according to the descriptions, it would have been recorded on January 17 of this year (2018).” ‘La Guardia Guerrerense’ (The Guerrero Guard) is a criminal organisation based in Mexico.

We found another report dated January 19, 2018 by Periodico La Voz, titled ‘Alleged hitmen cut out the heart of a living man‘. It describes the same crime in horrific details.

Next, we performed a reverse-image search of the superimposed clip of i24 NEWS. This led us to a report by i24 NEWS English, titled, ‘Israeli rescue service commander recounts Hamas atrocities’ on YouTube. The report features Yossi Landau, a member of an Israeli rescue operation called ‘Zaka‘, narrating the aftermath of the Hamas attack in Ashdod. At the 2:44 mark, Landau says, “When I go into the house, I see a woman on the stomach and besides we have to turn her around and put her on the head ups because we have to put her into the body bag, and I am not prepared for what I am gonna see…there’s blood and gun-shot wound on the back of her head. But when we turn her over, we see her stomach is open and a baby attached with a cord to the mother and stabbed with a knife and the mother was shot. I was trying to think what happened first…was the mother shot first or was the baby stabbed first.”

A comparison between the viral clip and the report by i24 NEWS clearly shows that the viral clip of the person being disembowelled was superimposed on the original video by i24 NEWS so that it appears that Landau is describing the victim of the above-mentioned crime.

To sum up, an old video depicting a man disembowelling a person alive has gone viral on social media with users claiming that Hamas militants had ripped open an Israeli pregnant woman, killed her unborn child, and taped her mouth so that she couldn’t scream. While there are reports about unspeakable atrocities committed by either sides in the ongoing war, our fact-check revealed that this particular video in question is from Mexico, 2018, where a living man’s bowel was cut open by criminals. Contrary to viral claims, the video does not show a pregnant woman and is not related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Abira Das is an intern at Alt News.