Viral clip shows video game footage, not violence in Israel

A Facebook post sharing a video that’s drawing thousands of views purports to show footage of recent violence between Hamas and Israel. 

"Israel and Palestine," the Oct. 8 Facebook post caption says. "War with the help of helicopter."

The clip shows helicopters being shot down from the sky. Some Facebook users were immediately suspicious. 

"Nice video game," one person commented.

"Not a video game," the account that posted the video replied.

But look closely at the bottom of the video and see three words that give it away: "Belal the Gamer."

This post 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.)

The video already doesn’t look like realistic footage of a war. But it appears this particular clip was poached from another user’s account. Belal the Gamer posts clips from the video game Arma 3, a military simulation. 

We rate claims that this is authentic footage of recent violence between Israel and Hamas False.