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After demonstrators gathered at the Israeli embassy in Bahrain in October 2023, social media users posted a video purporting to show demonstrators setting fire to the building in protest of the country’s airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. shared. However, the footage is more than 10 years old and shows police. station.
“Video showing Molotov cocktails thrown at Israeli embassy in Bahrain” report from October 19, 2023 post Share clips on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Similar posts were circulated in multiple languages and on other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Telegram.
Israeli officials say Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, most of them shot, mutilated and burned on the first day of the attack. He was a civilian. The country said about 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the clashes before the army regained control of the attacked area.
Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry said more than 5,000 people had been killed, more than 2,000 of them children, since Israel hit back with a relentless bombing campaign (AFP could not independently verify the figures). do not have).
Three convoys of aid trucks passed through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing, raising alarm over the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
On October 20th, demonstrations in support of Gaza were held across the Arab world. In Bahrain, which normalized diplomatic relations with Israel under the 2020 Abraham Accords, about 1,000 people took part in a march after Friday prayers, shouting anti-Israel slogans, but videos circulating on social media showed the protest The situation is not shown.
A reverse image search found a version of the video posted to YouTube on December 30, 2012 (archive available here).
According to an Arabic caption, the footage depicts protesters attacking a police station on Sitra Island, south of Manama, in November 2012.
Use of Google Maps, AFP We have located the video that was shared in a post to Citra Police Station.
On October 1, 2012, AFP reported on arrests in attacks similar to those shown in the video. A United Press International article published on November 5, 2012 describes a similar event.
“About 60 masked youths caused property damage in several towns in Bahrain after the government banned gatherings and public gatherings,” the news agency reported. “Around 1am, some youths threw petrol bombs at Sitra police station. Monday. “
The report quotes a witness as saying, “This is happening almost every day and we are getting used to it.”
Read more about AFP’s coverage of misinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict here.