Fact Check: Did heavy storm hit the city of Israel between 15 and 20 October, 2023?

Fact Check: Did heavy storm hit the city of Israel between 15 and 20 October, 2023?

Claims: There’s a viral video being shared on Facebook,YouTube and especially on TikTok claiming that there was heavy storm that hit the city of Israel on 15 October, 2023.

Full Text: A viral video with a caption “storm hit Israel today, 2023”, claims that Israel was hit by a ravaging storm with a sensitive religious undertones. The video shows footage of heavy rain and flooding, and claims that it is a sign of God’s wrath against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

A similar version of the video carried another text like” alhamdullilah a Allah”, which means glory and thanks to Allah.

Verification: To verify the authenticity of this widely circulated video, PRNigeria factcheck team discovered that the claim originated from a TikTok post by a user named Al Muslimah (@al_muslimah_) on October 15-22, 2023.  The video has over 29,000 likes and over 1,000 comments. Fact Check investigation observed that the video had different versions, and different text such as this one “I stand with Palestinian”.

PRNigeria fact-check team also discovered another video on YouTube claimed it was after airstrike on Gaza. The accompanying text reads this: “Doomsday in Israel!! flooding in tel aviv and storm in israel after hamas attacks in gaza today.” 

PRNigeria checked with major International reputable media platforms particularly CNN and Aljezeera who are major players in upto date coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict but there was no report of a storm in Israel.

However, in March 2023, there were reported storms amid fear of floods in some parts of Israel.

Meanwhile, there were some storm episodes in different parts of the world between 15 and 20 October 2023. For instance, in the United States, the Storm Prediction Center issued a severe weather outlook for the period of 20-25 October 2023, indicating a possibility of thunderstorms, tornadoes, and fire weather in some regions.

In the United Kingdom, Storm Babet brought heavy rain and flooding to parts of the West Midlands on 20 October, 2023, disrupting train travel and causing damage to infrastructure.

Also in china, there was red alert within the period for possible rain storm. 

Similarly in Scotland, there was weather storm within the period under verification. 

In the Middle East, a war broke out between Israel and Hamas on 7 October 2023, which involved a massive rocket barrage from Gaza and a ground invasion by Palestinian militants into Israel. The conflict was still ongoing as of 15 and 20 October,:2023, and caused widespread casualties and displacement. But there was no record of storm in Israel as portrayed in the viral video.

Conclusion: Findings by PRNigeria reveals that there is no record anywhere to prove that Israel was hit by storm between 15 and 20 October 2023. It therefore concludes that there is insuffcient evidence that the storm occurred in Israel after it attack Gaza this month.

By PRNigeria