Hezbollah on September 27 confirmed that its leader Hassan Nasrallah had been killed in an Israeli air attack at their headquarters in south Beirut, Lebanon.
A video now going viral allegedly shows soldiers in the Israel Defence Forces uniform partying and dancing after returning from the attack. Sharing the video, an X user wrote, “The Israeli fighter jet pilot returns to base after successfully eliminating Nasrallah.” Its archive can be seen here.
India Today Fact Check found that the viral video is from 2023 when an Israeli pop star performed to boost IDF soldiers’ morale.
Our Probe
Reverse searching keyframes from the viral video led us to the same video in an X post dated November 10, 2023. As per the post, the man dancing with the soldiers was Avihu Pankhasov. This made it clear that the video is old and therefore unrelated to Nasrallah’s killing.
A search with subsequent keywords led us to several media reports that contained the viral clip. As per The Jewish Chronicle, an Israeli army officer invited famous pop star Avihu Pinhasov to perform for his unit stationed in northern Israel to boost morale.
In a breach of military rules, several soldiers were seen holding their assault weapons in the video. After it went viral, the soldiers were reportedly disciplined by the IDF, and those who played with weapons were temporarily suspended from operational activity.
We also found a video report in The Telegraph that included the viral clip. Uploaded to its official YouTube channel on November 17, 2023, the report noted that several IDF reservists were suspended over raucous behaviour during Avihu Pinhasov’s visit.
Thus, it’s clear an old video of an IDF morale-boosting party is being falsely linked to Nasrallah’s death.
(Written by Ashish Kumar)
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