An old video of a young girl confronting and threatening to punch an Israeli soldier in 2012, is being shared with a false claim she is a Ukrainian standing up to a Russian soldier amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The video was aired by Hindi news outlets NDTVIndia and Republic Bharat claiming the girl is a Ukrainian national who is threatening a Russian soldier. The news outlets lauded the girl for her bravery. Republic Bharat also termed the video as their exclusive video.
BOOM found that the video is from 2012, and shows Ahed Tamimi who was 12 years old at the time, arguing with Israeli soldiers posted in Nabi Saleh region. Tamimi grew up to become a teenage Palestinian protester and the face of the Palestinian movement.
Republic Bharat aired the video on February 27, 2022 as part of their LIVE show about the crisis in Ukraine. The anchors praised the girl and claimed she is six to seven years old. They also claimed that the girl has become the face of Ukraine's rage over Russia's full-scale military operation.
The graphics on the video showed text in Hindi like, "रुसी सैनिक को बच्ची ने मुक्का दिखाया" (Girl threatened to punch a Russian soldier) and "रुसी सैनिक को बच्ची ने ललकारा"
NDTV India, the Hindi portal of NDTV also published the same video in a web story with the URL and English headline saying - "Little Girl Ready To Kill Russian Soldier For Her Country, People Are Saluting". While the story says NDTV India was not able to verify the location of the video, the English headline, URL and Tags (categories) used all link it too the Russia-Ukraine war.
On Faceboook, the same video is viral with several captions in Hindi praising the girl for standing up to a Russian soldier.
FACT CHECK
We first ran keyword searches using visual descriptions of the video and found a photo of the same girl from the same incident, used in a 2018 story published by news website Vox. Vox identified the girl Ahed Tamimi who was 12-years-old at the time of the video and later at the age of 16 arrested and imprisoned for eight months after she allegedly slapped two Israeli soldiers.
The Vox story carried a profile of Tamimi post her release from jail and in the same mentioned that Tamimi has a history of activism and in 2012 threatened an Israeli soldier. The story carried a photo of her which show the same scenes as in the viral video and credited international wire agency Associated Press for it.
Using this, we then ran a search on the photo site of Associated Press and found pictures of the same event showing the same girl as in the viral video.
The AP photo in its caption described the picture to be from 2012 and said, "In this Nov. 2, 2012 file photo, then 12-year-old Ahed Tamimi tries to punch an Israeli soldier during a protest in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh."
Additionally we found longer videos from 2012, showing the full sequence of events with captions saying that Tamimi and her family members confronted Israeli soldiers after they allegedly threatened to detain her cousin.
According to media reports from, Tamimi was 12-year-old when photos and videos of her threatening the Israeli soldier in Nabi Saleh region of Palestine which is under Israeli forces, went viral and gained international attention. For her actions, Tamimi was awarded the Handala Courage award by the Turkish government and Palestinian leaders also praised her. In 2015, another video of Tamimi biting as Israeli soldier went viral evoking strong reactions from both side and later in 2017, she was recorded on camera slapping two Isareli soldier after her brother was allegedly shot in the face by rubber bullets during a protest. After the 2017 incident, Tamimi was arrested and imprisoned for eight months and since her release became an teenage icon for the Palestinian movement. Read here
