2021 Video of Heavy Israeli Bombardment in Gaza Recirculates Online

Misbar investigated the circulating footage and found the claim to be misleading.

After conducting a thorough reverse image search, Misbar’s team found the video making the rounds to be outdated.

2021 Video of Heavy Israeli Bombardment on Gaza

Contrary to social media users’ claim, the video was not shot during the ongoing Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.

Misbar’s team traced the video back to the photographer of the video, who confirmed to Misbar that the footage was shot in 2021.

Mohannad Al Khateeb, a Palestinian journalist for Al Jazeera and Anadolu Agency, released the footage on his Instagram account on May 12, 2021.

He also shared the same video on his Facebook account on May 12, 2021. The video’s translated caption reads, “Bombing of Khan Yunis city by Israeli occupation aircraft This morning, Wednesday 5/12/2021.”

Moreover, Al Khateeb recently released the video on Instagram and wrote in the video's caption that he recorded it on May 12, 2021, showing Israeli aircraft carpet-bombing Khan Yunis. 

The video’s caption reads, "I will never forget this day, when the people of Khan Yunis woke up to a very large number of fire belts, whose policy of attacking Gaza continued until last night. I filmed this video on May 12, 2021."

Furthermore, the Palestinian journalist Mohannad Al Khateeb told Misbar that he shot the video on May 12, 2021, from the tallest tower in Khan Yunis. Al Khateeb clarified that the footage was taken in the Al-Mahatta area of Khan Yunis at approximately 6 am, just a day before Eid al-Fitr on May 13, 2021.

Israel's Carpet Bombing Tactic to Destroy Gaza 

According to Al Jazeera Network, the Israeli occupation forces deploy squadrons of 30 to 100 fighter jets to carpet-bomb Gaza, claiming to target the tunnels of the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip. These fire belts or carpet bombings result in massive destruction and numerous civilian casualties. A source from the Palestinian police's explosives engineering force disclosed to Al Jazeera that the Israeli army uses various bombs for these operations, including MK, BLU, and GBU bombs.

The number of aircraft in the squadron depends on the specific area to be targeted, with the aircraft carrying out their strikes in succession.

Thousands Flee Khan Yunis Amid New Israeli Bombardments

In April 2024, Khan Yunis residents returned to scenes of devastation. The landscape of their city felt unreal to the thousands of Palestinians returning to Gaza's second-largest city. Amid the rubble-strewn streets, people traveled back searching for their homes or what little remained of them.

Khan Yunis had been the focus of a sustained onslaught by the Israeli army since December. The Israeli forces believed that Hamas leaders and resistance fighters had relocated there from the north and established a new stronghold in tunnels and hospitals. The city, once home to approximately 400,000 people, was gradually deserted as Israeli forces mounted ferocious bombardments.

At the beginning of July, thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in southern Gaza as Israeli forces bombarded several areas following a new evacuation order for the city of Khan Yunis.

The Israeli military's newly declared evacuation zone in Khan Yunis covers an area where 250,000 people live, according to Sam Rose, planning director at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Since October 7, Israel's war on Gaza has resulted in at least 38,345 deaths and 88,295 injuries, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

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