Old video shared as Lebanese citizens celebrating Hassan Nasrallah's death

What is the claim?

Social media users have posted a video online claiming it shows Lebanese people celebrating the recent killing of former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. The viral video shows two women singing among a large crowd of people waving Lebanese flags.

An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the video (archived here), claiming that it showed Lebanese citizens celebrating the death "of the tyrant Nasrallah." The video has gained more than 1.8 million views, 41,000 likes, and 7,000 reposts. 

Archives of similar claims on X and Facebook are here, here, and here.

Screenshots of posts sharing the viral video. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot)

However, this four-year-old video from Lebanon is unrelated to the recent Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

What did we find?

In the comment sections of the viral claims, several users pointed out that the video is from 2020. We found the original video (archived here) posted by a TikTok user on January 19, 2020. We reviewed the TikTok profile and found several other videos featuring the same woman in the viral video.

This clearly shows that the viral video predates the death of Nasrallah, who was killed on September 27, 2024.

Screenshot of the TikTok post from January 2020. (Source: TikTok/Screenshot)

Moreover, on September 29, 2024, the woman in the video posted a clarification (archived here), captioned, "Stop Faking News." She points out that the viral clip is from 2020 and is not related to recent events in Lebanon. 

She wrote, "My friends, be careful of all the fake posts and don't believe everything they share. They used a very old video of mine from 2020, claiming it shows me and my friends celebrating the assassination of a political figure. Just to clarify: The video is old from the Lebanese revolution, and I don't live in Lebanon currently," she added.

Screenshot of the clarification from September 29, 2024. (Source: TikTok/Screenshot)

The Lebanese Revolution was a series of anti-government civil protests that began in October 2019 and continued for several months. According to the user, protests also occurred in January 2020, around the time the video was allegedly shot.

The verdict

The viral video doesn't show people celebrating the death of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The video has been available online since January 2020 and shows a public protest in Lebanon.