Large parts of Gaza have been flattened after Israel launched a bombing and ground campaign in the Palestinian territory in retaliation for an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants on October 7. An aerial footage of a town in ruins has circulated on social media, however, with a false claim it shows the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Gaza. It was in fact filmed in a city in northeast Libya that was hit by a devastating flood in September.
“Gaza has been completely destroyed,” reads the Burmese-language caption on the Facebook clip shared on October 21, 2023.
The video also has a voiceover in Burmese that says: “This is the heartbreaking scene from Gaza which has been targeted by Israel. An evacuation order was given to the people to move within 24 hours. The whole city has been destroyed by the bombardment.”
It shows aerial footage of a ravaged seaside town with collapsed buildings and has been viewed more than 1,600 times.
Israeli authorities said Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during bloody raids into Israel on October 7, and took around 240 hostages.
The attack prompted a blistering Israeli offensive into Hamas-run Gaza, which authorities there say has killed more than 14,000 people, thousands of them children.
The video has been shared with a similar false claim on Facebook and on TikTok here and here.
However, it actually shows an aerial view of the coastal city of Derna in Libya after flash floods killed thousands in September 2023.
Deadly flooding
A reverse image search and a subsequent keyword search on Google found a similar video showing an aerial view published on AFP’s YouTube channel on September 16, 2023 (archived link).
“Libyan city of Derna in ruins after devastating floods,” reads the title of the video.
“Aerial images show muddy roads and people searching for survivors in the rubble of buildings that collapsed during floods in Derna, eastern Libya,” the clip’s description reads. “Thousands of people were killed in the disaster and thousands more are missing.”
The coastal city was inundated after severe flash floods broke through two river dams upstream from Derna, killing more than 3,800 and displacing over 43,000 people.
The opening scene of the AFP video is similar to the clip published with the false claim.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the AFP video (left) and the clip from the false post (right) with similar elements highlighted:
Google Map’s satellite view of Derna also matches the location of the video shared with the false claim.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image from Google Maps (left) and the scene from the video in one of the false posts (right) with similar features highlighted:
Al Sahaba Mosque, which is located in the city of Derna, can also be seen in the video at the 0:19 mark.
The Israel-Hamas war has sparked a torrent of misinformation on social media debunked by AFP here.