The video, shared on X Monday December 11, 2023, shows a bulldozer destroying a road by digging furrows in it, in a desert area. Viewed more than 5 million times on the platform, it is accompanied by the text “The Zionists are literally destroying everything so that it becomes unlivable…” and punctuated by a Palestinian flag emoji.
In the context of the war between Israel and Hamas following the attack of October 7, 2023, this publication suggests that the images are recent and would show a response by the Israeli army.
FAKE OFF
The video was not filmed in the context of Israeli operations in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas attack. However, it does show an action by the IDF army but in the West Bank, in 2021.
A reverse image search allows you to find the origin of this video. The first trace of these images that 20 minutes was able to identify dates back to June 13, 2021, on the Facebook page of the Palestine International Broadcast channel. The publication then states: “Israeli forces are destroying roads to Palestinian villages in the Hebron area. » The city of Hebron is the largest city in the West Bank, under occupation by the Israeli army.
We also find these images in a video published a few days later, on June 16, 2021, on the website and the Youtube channel by B’Tselem “The Israeli Information Center on Human Rights in the Occupied Territories”, a Israeli NGO opposed to the occupation.
The video and article, titled “Israeli army again destroys roads leading to Masafer Yatta communities and a water pipe serving one of them,” provide more insight into the context of the destruction of this road.
“On Wednesday, June 9, 2021, around 8 a.m., soldiers arrived with a D9 bulldozer in the Masafer Yatta area in the South Hebron Hills area. The forces destroyed a 500-meter-long stretch of road leading to the community of She’b al-Batum, part of which was paved with concrete, as well as a 500-meter-long dirt road leading to Khirbet al- Mufaqarah,” we can read in the article that accompanies the video.
The Masafer Yatta area in the West Bank is territory under the control of the Israeli army. The territory was declared a “firing zone” by the army in 1981, and the Palestinian populations are threatened with expulsion. As reported the Israeli pressIsrael’s Supreme Court authorized the army to expel more than 1,300 Palestinians living in this territory.