Fox News accused of staging fake arrest in Israel, but raw footage shows the real story

Social media users are accusing Fox News of conspiring with Israel by staging a Palestinian man’s arrest in Gaza.

"Propagandist Fox News helped the Israeli army to fake a video of alleged Palestinians trying to cross the border fence of Gaza into Israel," a Nov. 22 TikTok video’s caption read.

The TikTok post shares a video in which a Fox News reporter describes what’s happening as a person is arrested and led away blindfolded and wearing only underwear by the Israeli military. Shortly after — just before the Fox report cuts to a live shot of the reporter — the same underwear-clad man is seen "casually getting dressed again," the TikTok caption said. 

That proves the man is a "crisis actor," the caption on the TikTok video alleged.

TikTok identified this video as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content. (Read more about PolitiFact's partnership with TikTok.)

We found multiple social media posts sharing the video and accusing Fox News of staging the scene.

(Screenshot from TikTok)

The video is authentic and shows Fox News reporter Trey Yingst reporting Oct. 12 from the scene of Israel’s Tribe of Nova music festival in Reim, where Hamas militants attacked concertgoers Oct. 7. 

The video of Yingst aired on Fox News Oct. 12 as he was speaking with "America Reports" anchors Sandra Smith and Bill Hemmer.

But the man in the video isn’t a crisis actor, and the video doesn’t show him getting dressed after his arrest, as the TikTok post purported. Yingst shared raw footage of his reporting on X and Instagram in response to the allegations. It shows the Palestinian man taking his clothes off before Israeli forces took him into custody.

"The truth is important," Yingst wrote.

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A Fox News spokesperson confirmed that raw footage shows the man undressing before his arrest by the Israeli military and attributed the report later showing him undressing to an editing oversight.

The same Palestinian man is seen being forced to undress before being arrested in this video with Sky News reporter Stuart Ramsay. He described the military coming across a suspected Hamas militant who had a knife. Israeli soldiers ordered the man to undress, fearing he may have been wearing a suicide bomb vest.

He can also be seen removing his shirt before his arrest in this CBS News video.

The claim that Fox News staged the arrest of a Palestinian man in Gaza on behalf of Israel is False.

PolitiFact news researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.