A disturbing video from 2016 of two Turkish soldiers being burnt alive by the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) is being shared with the false claim that it shows the torture being meted out to Israeli soldiers by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
On October 7, Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls the Gaza strip, launched a surprise attack on border towns and villages of Israel killing over 1400 Israelis and taking nearly 200 as hostages. Israel has retaliated with relentless airstrikes on Gaza. According to officials quoted in reports, more than 4,137 Palestinians including children in Gaza have been killed since the conflict started.
The conflict has also led to a deluge of mis and disinformation on social media platforms especially X (formerly Twitter) with several Indian verified accounts sharing anti Palestine and pro Israel misinformation. BOOM has debunked several such fake and false posts being shared on social media since the conflict began.
Read factchecks about the Israel- Palestine conflict on BOOM's WhatsApp Channel here
The disturbing video shows two soldiers standing, tied to the two ends of a metal chain and then the chain set on fire, spreading to the soldiers eventually kiling them. The video also has music overlaid on it and has a slick production quality that are a feature of Islamic State's propaganda videos that show horrific violence and human rights violations.
The video is being shared with a text in Hindi which roughly translates to, "See the cruel face of Hamas terrorists. This video of inhuman and diabolical action is by the terrorists of Hamas in which two Israeli soldiers were tied with chains, wrapped in gunpowder on their bodies, set on fire and they are dying in agony. But still some traitors are supporting Hamas. It is very important to eliminate Hamas terrorists, we all should support @Israel."
The video is also being shared on WhatsApp with an English text, "Hamas barbarians burning chained Israeli soldiers alive"
Given the disturbing nature of the video, BOOM is not not including the same in the story.
Former Bharatiya Janata Party Delhi wing spokesperson Naveen Kr Jindal shared the video on the X (formerly Twitter)
View an archive of the post here
FACT CHECK
We noticed the ISIS black and white flag with Arabic text visible on the left corner of the video and a reverse image search using keywords "IS burns soldier" showed news results from 2016 of two likely Turkish soldiers burnt by the terrorist organisation in Syria.
According to a BBC report dated December 23, 2016, "...lslamic State (IS) has released a video online which claims to show two captured Turkish soldiers being burned alive. IS said they were killed in revenge for Turkish killing of Muslims. Turkey launched a campaign against IS in northern Syria in August and is currently fighting IS around the group's stronghold of al-Bab."
A Reuters report from the same day quoted a US based SITE Intelligence Group and said, "Islamic State in Syria released a video on Thursday purporting to show two captured Turkish soldiers being burned to death, according to the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group which monitors militant groups online." It further added, "Late last month, Turkish military officials said they had lost contact with two soldiers in northern Syria, where the army is waging an offensive against Islamic State."
Al Jazeera reported that in the video, the men carrying weapons who kill the soldiers, are speaking in Turkish and "criticise Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan" and further "call for destruction to be sowed in Turkey."
News site Al Arabiya also reported the story with visuals from the video.
We then ran a search for Turkish media outlets which had reported on the incident and found a report by 'Turkish Minute' which quoting a local news outlet reported that the soldiers had been identified as "Fethi Şahin and Sefer Taş."
The report also carried a screenshot from the video which matches the viral video.