Fact-check: Was Israeli Army General Captured by Hamas in a New Attack?

Fact-check: Was Israeli Army General Captured by Hamas in a New Attack?

Claim: A Facebook post emerged claiming that an Israeli army general was captured by the Palestinian resistance movement commonly known as Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, Hamas, in a recent fresh attack. 

The claim has been massively forwarded to WhatsApp groups with an accompanying text that reads, “Israeli general was captured by Hamas fighters [sic].”

Verification: PRNigeria screenshotted the video and ran a reverse image search of the picture.

The results revealed that the tattoo-stripped man was an unidentified Neo-Nazi man who was humiliated by Ukrainian soldiers. 

PRNigeria observed that the footage which was used by the claimer was an old video that was first published in February, this year.

According to an influencer on X, the tattooed man might have been mistaken for a neo-nazi element by Ukranian soldiers, saying “I know Ukrainians do much worse & it’s only a few slaps, but it always pisses me off seeing defenceless POWs being abused, even if they’re covered in Nazi tattoos. [sic].”

Similarly, an assistant editor at BBC pinned an X post she made recently, debunking the claim that an Israeli general has been captured by Hamas fighters in a new attack.

“This TikTok doesn’t show an Israeli general in captivity. It features two different people.

“The one on the left is IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt-General Herzi Halevi.

“The one on the right is a Ukrainian PoW. His video has been circulating on pro-Kremlin Telegram since Feb.”

Conclusion: Based on the findings by PRNigeria, no Israeli army general was captured by Hamas fighters and the stripped man in the video is not even a citizen of Israel.

Therefore, PRNigeria, concludes that the claim that an Israeli general has been captured by Hamas fighters in a new attack is False. 

By PRNigeria