Old video of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah crying shared as recent

What is the claim?

A video of the general secretary of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, sobbing has been circulating online with claims that it shows him shedding tears after losing "hundreds of his commanders" in the recent pager blasts in Lebanon. 

Sharing the video (archived here) on X (formerly Twitter) on September 24, a user wrote, "Hezbollah terrorist commander Nasrallah was laughing on 7th October when innocent Israelis were been m*rdered by Hamas Terrorist. Today, he is crying after losing 100s of his commanders to pager blasts. Even his own life is in danger." The video has gained more than 1.8 million views, 6100 reposts, and 2300 comments. 

Archived versions of similar posts are here, here and here.

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

However, we have found that the viral video is more than two years old and not connected to the recent pager attacks in Lebanon.

What did we find?

A reverse image search on one of the keyframes led us to an X post (archived here) from August 11, 2022, where the viral clip can be seen from timestamp 1:35 to 1:49. This clearly indicates that the video predates the recent pager attacks in Lebanon.

 Screenshot of the X post from August 2022. (Source: X/Screenshot)

On further research, we found a YouTube video from August 12, 2022 (archived here), that features the viral clip between the 03:08 and 03:22 timestamp. According to the title of the video, written in Arabic and translated using Google Translate, the video shows Hassan Nasrallah crying while "talking about the tragedy of the Master of Martyrs." In Islam, "Master of Martyrs" is the title given to Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.   

Moreover, in the YouTube video, we can see Arabic text in the background behind Nasrallah that mentions "Muharram 1444 Hijri"; 1444 Hijri is the Islamic calendar year for 2022. 

 Screenshot of the YouTube video from August 2022. (Source: YouTube/Screenshot)

Based on this information, we were able to find a report from August 8, 2022, stating that Nasrallah made this speech on the "last night of Ashura," which refers to the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. 

The report features an image of Nasrallah wearing the same clothes and the red background as seen in the YouTube video carrying the viral clip. The text behind Nasrallah is visible and part of it translates as: "August 8, 2022 AD." 

Another report from August 9, 2022, also refers to the comments by Nasrallah.

This all conclusively establishes that the viral clip of the Hezbollah chief shedding tears is more than two years old and is unrelated to the recent events in Lebanon, as claimed.

The verdict

Social media users are sharing a two-year-old video of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah sobbing and incorrectly linking it with the current situation in Lebanon.