How social media rapidly spread misinformation in Israel-Gaza war

Misinformation has spread online following Hamas' surprise attack on Israel from Gaza and Israel’s response with air strikes, as the two sides continued to battle.

During a major event like an armed conflict, many social media users share misleading or baseless claims, including miscaptioned imagery or altered documents, in an effort to shape public perception.

Reuters has fact-checked some of the widely shared claims in English, Hebrew and Arabic languages.

Miscaptioned parachute gliders

When Hamas launched the October 7 surprise attack, militants backed by rocket fire flew into Israel on paragliders. But thousands of people on social media wound up watching unrelated footage of Egyptian paratroopers skydiving over the Egyptian Military Academy in Cairo.

“WATCH: Hamas gunmen can be seen paragliding into the Israeli music festival and launch a massive deadly attack,” wrote one verified user on X who shared the clip.

Biden's $8 billion aid that wasn't

US President Joe Biden has offered Israel “all appropriate means of support” and is moving military ships and aircraft physically closer, Reuters reported.

However, Biden has not authorised $8 billion in military aid for Israel, as some people online have falsely claimed. The claim is pinned to an altered image of a White House memorandum from July, in which Biden approved $400 million of aid to Ukraine.

Old footage of music festival

A music festival attended by thousands in the Israeli kibbutz of Reim was one of the gunmen’s first targets after breaching the Gaza border fence.

Circulating on social networks as showing the moment the festival was attacked, however, was a video filmed three days earlier, showing fans of US singer Bruno Mars running into a Tel Aviv concert ground to see him perform.

False claim: Orthodox Jews 'flee' gunmen

Another video said by social media users to show Jewish people fleeing as air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem was unrelated to the October clashes.

The video of first appeared online at least four days before October 7. A person speaking in the clip in Hebrew describes the scene as showing Orthodox Jews leaving the Western Wall after prayers.

'Lost girl' predates October clashes 

A video of a young girl with a man speaking in Arabic has been shared online with the false description that it shows Hamas militants with a kidnapped girl in the aftermath of the shock offensive.

The video, titled “Lost girl,” includes audio of a man saying in Arabic, “Who are your parents? Where is your mum where is your father, with whom did you come?”

While Reuters has reported on the kidnappings of women and children into Gaza, the video above was posted on TikTok Sept. 8, nearly a month before the Oct. 7 attacks.