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Loreben Tuquero
By Loreben Tuquero October 13, 2023

‘Gates of hell’ in Gaza? No, a viral video shows fireworks in Algeria

If Your Time is short

  • The video was uploaded days before the Hamas attacks against Israel, and was taken in Algeria, not Gaza.

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The video showed a disturbing scene. It started with a view of cars on a roundabout, surrounding buildings tinged in red.  Flares and fireworks go off,  shrouding the air with smoke. Social media users claimed this is what’s happening in Gaza now during the Israel-Hamas war.

"The gate of HE!L has opened in G A Z A," read the caption of an Oct. 9 Facebook video, which is no longer available. It was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

@politifact Replying to @xd stealthy #factcheck: This viral video was taken in Algeria, not Gaza, and was uploaded days before the Hamas attacks against Israel. Out-of-context videos have been flooding social media since the Israel-Hamas war began. #israel #gaza #hamas #misinformation #fyp #learnontiktok ♬ To the Moon - L.Dre & Vybe Village

The same video was used in several X posts, which all contained this caption: "If Russia did this in Kiev it would be all over the news and everyone would be screaming ‘genocide’, but it's happening in Gaza and no one cares about the civilian casualties." 

Out-of-context videos have been flooding social media since this war began, and this video is no different.

The X posts’ video featured the handle of TikTok user @ramiguerfi41. The video is no longer on the user’s account, but other TikTok users reposted the video Oct. 2, days before Hamas began attacking Israel on Oct. 7. 

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Using satellite imagery, Reuters reported that this video was taken in Algiers, Algeria, matching the roundabout to Place Al Mokrani. ​

Although the original video’s context is unclear, soccer fans in Algiers have been known to use red flares and fireworks in celebration.

The video does not show Gaza after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. We rate that claim False.

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