A video of shots fired at fighter jets has gone viral on social media with the claim that Turkish and Iranian aircraft were shot by Israel. Turkey and Iran supported the Palestinian cause after Israel increased its military offensive against the Gaza Strip, sparked by protests against an Israeli district court ordering the eviction of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem.
The video shared on Facebook is about five minutes long. On Twitter, where the maximum upload limit is 2:20 minutes, the same video has been broken into two and shared separately. “Israel’s air defence system shot down Turkish and Iranian fighter jets in the air using laser,” reads the viral claim
Facebook user Vikas Pawar posted this video but wrote that Israel shot down ‘terrorist’ fighter jets. It has gained over nine lakh views.
इजरायल के एयर डिफेंस सिस्टम ने आतंकवादियों के लड़ाकू विमानों को हवा में ही मार गिराया।
#Unmatched_technology टेक्नोलॉजी का सही इस्तेमाल तो इज़राइल कर रहा हैPosted by Vikas Pawar on Monday, 17 May 2021
Prominent Facebook pages that posted this video include Modi Mania (18,000 views) and SSB Interview Selection (25,000 views).
‘ARMA 3’ video game clip goes viral again
Both Iranian and Turkish presidents have expressed the need to de-escalate the violence between Israel and Palestine. In fact, Turkey has called for an international force to protect the Palestinians. However, no military action has been taken by the two countries against Israel.
We watched the viral video and noticed that it is made up of different clips at the following intervals —
- 0:00 to 0:34
- 0:35 to 2:33
- 2:34 to 2:59
- 3:00 to 4:42
- 4:42 to 5:09
Barring the last segment, Alt News could verify that the videos are from ARMA 3, a realism-based military shooter video game. It was developed and published by Bohemia Interactive in 2013. Last year in January and October, some of these videos were debunked by Alt News.
Segment 1 – 0:00 to 0:34
This portion was uploaded by YouTuber Compared Comparison in July 2020. The relevant part begins from the 0:22 mark.
Segment 2 – 0:35 to 2:33
This was uploaded by a Japanese YouTube user (れいさいおんじ) in August 2020 with a disclaimer in Japanese (この動画は 、フィクションです 。登場する人物・団体・名称等は架空であり 、実在のものとは関係ありません ) that translates to, “This video is fiction. Characters, groups, names, etc. are fictitious and have nothing to do with real things.”
Segment 3 – 2:34 to 2:59
The above-mentioned Japanese YouTuber (れいさいおんじ) had uploaded this portion in October 2020. It can be watched onward the 18-second mark.
Segment 4 – 3:00 to 4:42
Alt News couldn’t locate the identical footage. However, it is similar to the footage in segments 1 and 3 from ARMA 3.
Segment 5 – 4:42 to 5:09
Alt News performed a reverse image search on Yandex and found the video on Coub, a US-based video-sharing platform founded in 2012 by brothers Anton and Igor Gladkoborodov. It was uploaded in 2016 by a user called Partizani.
A video made using multiple clips from the video game ARMA 3 was shared with the false claim that Israel’s defence system struck down aircraft belonging to Iran and Turkey using laser beams.
