Did the Russia Today Journalist visit the Hamas tunnel network now to report from the war ground? Read more
Claim
As Israel begins targeting Gaza Terror Tunnel Network, Hamas Terror groups give access to Russia Today journalist to visit the Tunnel Network. This is the RT on-ground report from underneath Gaza. This is the Gaza Metro.
Rating
Explanation
After an armed conflict between Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups’ surprise attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has been besieging and bombarding the Gaza Strip, worsening a humanitarian crisis. Amidst the current tension there are numerous videos daily shared on social media linking it to the war.
#Hamas Terr0r groups gives access to Russia Today journalist to visit its Tunnel Network.
They built a city under the city at the time when people were living from hand to mouth. This is where all the aid money went!#IsraelPalestineWar pic.twitter.com/idZFFRuECe— Sandra Bharati (@sandra40975233) November 1, 2023
Here, this 3-minute 15-second viral video shared by the TV9 Network’s executive editor Aditya Raj Kaul on 31 October 2023 received a whooping 3.9M views, 9K likes, and 5.9k reposts. In the video we see a journalist going inside the tunnel using a rope slowly and after reaching inside he explains all the things to the viewers. He says how the whole place is made with cement like the floors and walls too. He also communicates with the armed militants sitting inside the tunnel. We see lots of Hamas posters hanging around the cement walls.
The X post was captioned as “As Israel begins targeting Gaza Terror Tunnel Network, Hamas Terror groups give access to Russia Today journalist to visit the Tunnel Network. This is the RT on-ground report from underneath Gaza. This is the Gaza Metro.” This same post is repeatedly circulated by many social media users with similar claims can be viewed here, here, and here. Come, let’s check the authenticity of this viral claim.
What’s the truth?
When we started our research, we noticed that many users in the comment section had pointed out that the viral clip was old. We took that as a cue and searched with all the keyframes from the viral video which eventually led us to the verified X page of ‘RT Arabic’, which uploaded the video earlier on June 14, 2021.
The X post was captioned as “Exclusive: Artie team enters the Saraya al-Quds tunnels under the land of Gaza and monitors their depth and restoration operations after the last war.” This clearly proves that the video is not recent.
Later on 19 June 2021, the website ‘RT Arabic’ has written an article regarding the same titled as “Exclusive: RT correspondent visits Quds Force tunnel systems in Gaza.” According to the article, a Russian Today correspondent visited the Sarai Quds Brigades’ tunnel systems in Gaza, which is cut off from the outside world, to find out to what extent tunnel systems are still in operation after the last war. The Russian Today journalist was lowered several meters using a rope to view the Hamas tunnel system. He conducted an interview with the Palestinian fighters in the underground city. The Quds Brigades is the military wing of the Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad, which cooperates with Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
This further solidifies that the video shared is old and has no connection to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Also when we advanced our search we found the same video uploaded by ‘ELINT NEWS’ a UK based news outlet on 17, June 2021. The X post is captioned as ‘RT Arabic in PIJ tunnels under Gaza after the last war 3 weeks ago.’
This proves that the viral video is old and from 2021.
Conclusion:
Thus we conclude with all the available evidence that the circulated viral clip claiming that the RT journalist is visiting the Hamas tunnel network and reporting now from on the war ground is totally false. The truth is the video is old and from 2021.
