A video is going viral on social media platforms showing a helicopter in flames spiralling from the sky. Users on social media platforms are fervently sharing this video and claiming that an Apache helicopter was targeted by a SAM-7 missile in the west of Gaza City.

A user named @asgore6545 shared this video on X(Twitter) and wrote: ” God willing, Hamas will never be defeated The men of Q,,,M succeed in targeting an Apache helicopter with a SAM-7 missile west of Gaza City”

In addition to that, several users shared this video on X(Twitter) and made similar claims.

Fact-Check

To determine the reality of the above viral video, the DFRAC team converted this video into some keyframes and reverse-searched it on Google. We found this video on the YouTube account of media outlet AL-Hadath with an Arabic caption: “A Syrian regime helicopter was shot down in the Nayrab area in the Idlib countryside by opposition factions.“(Translated to English). The video was posted in Feb 2020.

Moreover, the video was also discovered on Al-Hadith’s Facebook handle citing the same caption.

A media report by Aljazeera from the year 2020 also reported this incident. The report stated: ” Turkey-backed Syrian rebels have shot down a government helicopter in the country’s opposition-held northwest, according to rebel leaders and Turkish state media.

The military helicopter was shot down south of Idlib city, where rebels supported by Turkish artillery were advancing near the town of Nairab in Idlib province to push back Russia-backed forces, Abdulah al-Shami, a commander in a coalition of mainstream rebel factions, told Reuters news agency”.

Conclusion

It is clear from DFRAC’s fact-check that the viral video claiming an Apache helicopter was targeted by a SAM-7 missile in the west of Gaza City is misleading as the video depicted a 2020 incident when a Syrian regime helicopter was shot down in the Nayrab area in the Idlib countryside.

Analysis: Misleading