Old video from Syria viral as Israel bombing Palestinian mosque

Amid the ongoing escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine, a video has been shared with the claim that the third-holiest mosque in Islam was bombed down by Israel.

मक्का और मदीना के बाद इस्लाम में अल अक्शा तीसरी सबसे पवित्र मस्जिद
मानी जाती थी जोकि इजरायल द्वारा
तोड़ दी गई 😁😁🚩 pic.twitter.com/0SGR4szDdR

— तक्ष श्रीवास्तव (🚩कट्टर भगवाधारी🚩) (@TakshSrivastav1) May 11, 2021

The tweet below drew close to 1,700 likes as of this writing.

Ajay Singh, president of Madhya Pradesh petroleum dealers association, similarly wrote that Israel bombed the mosque in Palestine.

उधर इजराइल धमा धम फिलिस्तीन पर बम पटक रहा है
दुनिया की तीसरी सबसे बड़ी मस्जिद ध्वस्त pic.twitter.com/98Ht8ICPcZ

— Ajay Singh (@ajaysingh0018) May 12, 2021

The clip has also been widely shared on Facebook with the claim, “World’s third largest mosque demolished. (दुनिया की तीसरी सबसे बड़ी मस्जिद ध्वस्त).”

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Fact-check

While Israeli security forces clashed with Palestinian protestors at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and there was also a video fire in the mosque’s compound, the viral clip has nothing to do with the recent violence.

A Google reverse image search of the video’s keyframes took us to the same video uploaded on a YouTube channel on June 8, 2014, but the channel identifies the mosque as Uwais al-Qarni. This was located in the city of Raqqa in Syria and was demolished by terror group ISIS in 2014.

We also found this video uploaded on the YouTube channel of Mint on August 26, 2015. The channel carried a video report on five ancient sites demolished by ISIS.

United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) released a report through satellite analysis on the damage to Syrian shrines. This included before and after photos of the Uwais al-Qarni Mosque.

UNITAR shared a detailed report on the loss of religious places in Raqqa city. The report provides complete information on the damage to the mosque. (Read PDF here)

International news organisations Al Jazeera and Reuters have also reported on the mosque’s destruction.

A video of Uwais al-Qarni Mosque in Syria’s Raqqa destroyed by ISIS has been falsely shared as Israel bombing a mosque in the ongoing violence against Palestine.