Image claiming to show Hezbollah capture of IDF soldiers in Lebanon is over 6 years old from Gaza
The image was released by Hamas after a series of military training exercises in the Gaza Strip in 2018
CLAIM
An image posted to X on November 24 purported to show Israeli soldiers being captured by Hezbollah in Lebanon, appearing with the caption: “More Israeli Hostages.”
BACKGROUND
An image posted to X showed soldiers wearing fatigues appearing to take troops wearing a different uniform captive.
The image was posted by a seemingly pro-Palestine account, with the caption: “Hezbollah captured Israeli soldiers in Lebanon More Israeli Hostages.”
The post, published by @ZAINABALI_72, was viewed nearly 300,000 times and had a lot of engagement, including over 17,000 ‘likes’.
The uploader’s profile had the bio: “the world is waiting for justice and justice is waiting for #Imam_Mahdi (ajtl) #freePalestine.”
A header image on the profile included images of the ex-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and Iranian figures like the former president Ebrahim Raisi and general Qassem Soleimani.
METHOD
A Google Lens reverse image search of the picture brought up dozens of examples of its use before November 2024.
The photo had been widely shared in 2023, but through reverse image searching we were also able to find earlier examples of its use.
This news report from December 2021 included the image in an article about a military exercise by the Hamas military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
However, it appeared that use of the photo was as a file image, as we were able to find it in earlier news articles about the Qassam Brigades, which are made up of Palestinian militants and not Hezbollah or Lebanese fighters.
This article from September 2021 used the same image, as did this one from December the same year.
The results from our Google reverse image search suggested that there were examples of the image being used in the 2010s, but in some cases, the web pages were unavailable.
Our research so far confirmed that the image was not related to any Hezbollah operation in 2024, but we turned to TinEye’s reverse image search service to check if any further results could be found.
We managed to find an article by Palestinian news outlet Raya from 2018 that included this image along with several others, with the headline: “Al-Qassam publishes new photos of defensive manoeuvres.”
The images were described as published by the media department of the Hamas military wing on March 26, 2018. All of the images featured the logo of the Qassam Brigades, which appears to have been cropped out of later uses including the post on X in November 2024.
According to the Raya article, the images showed military exercises performed by the Qassam Brigades in the Gaza Strip over the previous day and that same day. They were said to have included exercises on different scenarios, such as defence, naval and air landing operations, and raiding enemy forces.
This analysis confirms that the images have no connection to Hezbollah operations in Lebanon in November 2024, and were actually released by Hamas in 2018.
RATING
The image was released by Hamas after a series of military training exercises in the Gaza Strip in 2018, and has no connection to Hezbollah operations in 2024.
SOURCES
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: Hezbollah captured Israeli soldiers in Lebanon… [Accessed 26 Nov. 2024].
صحيفة دنيا الوطن (2021). قيادي بحماس: مناورة القسام رسالة تحدٍ للاحتلال. [online] موقع نبض. Available here. [Accessed 26 Nov. 2024].
وكالة الصحافة الفلسطينية (2021). في ذكراها الـ29.. التفاصيل الكاملة لأسر ‘آلون كرفاني’ بغزة. [online] وكالة الصحافة الفلسطينية. Available here. [Accessed 26 Nov. 2024].
شبكة قدس الإخبارية. (2021). دلالات ورسائل مناورات درع القدس – شبكة قدس الإخبارية. [online] Available here. [Accessed 26 Nov. 2024].
شبكة راية الإعلامية (2018). القسام ينشر صورا جديدة من المناورات الدفاعية. [online] Available at: https://www.raya.ps/news/1038808.html[Accessed 26 Nov. 2024].