Video from Syria shared as 'journalists killed in Gaza'

The claim

On November 19, 2023, journalists Belal Jadallah, Hassouna Sleem, and Sary Mansour were killed in an Israeli attack on the Bureij refugee camp, Reuters reported. 

Later, a video of two journalists speaking in Arabic wearing protective clothing with the text "Press" began to circulate on social media. The video is a montage of the two speaking in front of a missile launcher in action and then standing by a vehicle uncovering missiles loaded on it. This video had the text, ”when someone will ask you why israel eliminate the 2 jourannalist just use this vid (sic)” overlaid on it. It was shared on X (formerly Twitter), captioned, “The Zionist regime has just killed two innocent journalists. In the video below, they can be seen enjoying their last weekend at a family-friendly water pipe launching party.” The post had over 40,000 views and more than 900 likes at the time of writing this story. (Archive here).

Screenshot of the viral claim with a 'false' label added on top of it by Logically Facts for clarity. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the claim is false. The video is from Syria, and not Gaza.

What we found

A reverse image search showed that the men in the video are Syrian journalists – Jamil Al-Hassan (right) and Muhammad Al-Faisal (left). We found the viral video clip on Al-Hassan's X account, posted on October 7, 2023 captioned, “In retaliation for the blood of our children, in retaliation for our people, in response to the criminals, our factions are targeting Qardaha #Idlib_revenge (Translated from Arabic).” 

An image from the video was also posted on Al-Hassan’s Instagram account on October 7, 2023.

The bio on Al-Faisal's X account reads that he is a Syrian journalist covering the Syrian revolution from Northern Syria. We found that on November 20, 2023, Faisal replied to an X user who posted the viral video and claimed that Israel killed two journalists. His reply (originally in Arabic) reads, “Fake news, this is me and my friend @Jamil_Alhasaan We in Syria support the Syrian revolution against Bashar al-Assad, the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia. This video is in Syria and is of the revolutionary factions bombing the camps of the criminal Assad regime (sic).” He had tagged Jamil Al-Hassan and stated that the video was from Syria.

Screenshot of Journalist Muhammad Al-Faisal X post. (Source: X/Screenshot)

We examined Faisal’s X account and found he had posted multiple video reports from Syria. On October 6, 2023, he posted a video from Idlib, Syria. It was titled, “Assad's militia continues its retaliatory response against civilians and bombs the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo.” 

Comparison of viral video and Muhammad Al-Faisal’s coverage from Syria. (Source: X/Screenshots)

Both the journalists have been active on their X accounts, and the last post by Al-Hassan was on November 21, and Faisal was on November 23, 2023.

Logically Facts has contacted Jamil Al-Hassan and Muhammad Al-Faisal for a comment. The story will be updated if and when we receive a response.

According to Voice of America, over 80 people were killed and about 280 injured when Syrian rebels attacked the Homs Military Academy on October 2, 2023. Syrian and Russian artillery launched a counteroffensive against towns and villages under rebel control in the province of Idlib on October 4, 2023. A civil war is underway in Syria where Syrian rebels have been fighting Assad's government since 2011.

The verdict

Syrian journalists covering the Syrian revolution in Idlib, Syria, have been falsely linked to the Israel-Hamas war. The video does not show journalists in Gaza; it is one month old and not recent. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.