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Old Image Of Stampede In Israel Shared Claiming To Show Victims Of Recent Shooting Incident In Jerusalem
India, 31 Jan 2023 8:33 AM GMT
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Following the harrowing incident of a gunman opening fire in Jerusalem on Friday, which led to the deaths of seven people, an image is viral with the claim that it shows the incident's victims. The Logical Indian Fact-Check verifies the claim.
Following the harrowing incident of a gunman opening fire in Jerusalem on Friday, which led to the deaths of seven people, a viral image showing bodies covered in white clothes has been widely circulated across social media. The image has been circulated with the claim that it shows the incident's victims.
Claim:
The image shows several persons seemingly dead, covered from head to toe in white clothes. Officials in orange vests can be seen performing tasks around the dead bodies.
Israeli author shared the image with the claim, “BREAKING: A Palestinian terrorist entered a synagogue in Jerusalem and murdered 7 Jewish worshipers. Please pray for Israel. Heartbreaking Friday here.”
Other users across social media also circulated the image with similar claims.
The image is viral across Twitter and Facebook with a similar claim.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian Fact-Check team verified the viral claim and found it to be misleading. The viral image is almost two years old.
We conducted a reverse image search on the viral image, which threw up a tweet published on April 30, 2021. The set of images shows dead bodies draped with white cloths. The viral image can be spotted amidst this set of images. The translated caption reads, “The numbers are constantly increasing...Horror and a state of extreme alert in Israel, after dozens of Israelis were killed and hundreds injured after the collapse of a bridge on which they gathered to celebrate the Jewish “Flame” festival in Galilee.”
We then conducted another reverse image search and found this report in an Arabic media outlet. On Friday morning, dozens of people were killed due to the collapse of a bridge and a construction machine in the Meron area, located in the west of the city of Safad (northern occupied Palestine). The victims were taking part in a Jewish religious ceremony.
On the website rus.lb.ua, we found the same image uploaded in a report about the incident. The report notes that at least 44 people have been killed and over 100 injured in a stampede at the Lag B'Omer Jewish festival on Mount Meron in northern Israel. As per police sources, the panic and stampede were caused by some festival participants slipping on the steps, causing a chain reaction.
We also came across a New York Times published on May 5, 2021. The title reads, ‘Stampede at Israel Religious Celebration Kills at Least 45’.
“The deadly crush began around 1 a.m. on April 29, as celebrants began to pour out of a section of a compound where festivities were being held. The death toll of 45, released later by the Health Ministry, made it one of the worst civilian disasters in Israeli history,” said the NYT report.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews traditionally gather at Mount Meron to celebrate the holiday, Lag b’Omer. They dance and make bonfires around the tomb of a prominent rabbi from antiquity. Critics have warned for years that the site’s patchy infrastructure cannot safely handle large crowds.
Conclusion:
We found that the photograph is two-year-old and is from the stampede in Israel’s Mount Meron. The photo taken during a Jewish festival was falsely linked to the recent shooting attack in Jerusalem.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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