Does an image of military personnel show Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in Gaza in 2023? No, that's not true: The image has circulated since at least 2018 and predates the October 2023 conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by @qqaa22337 on TikTok on October 9, 2023, under the title "이스라엘군가자지구총집결.하마스 어디로가나?" The video translates the same Korean caption into English:
Israeli military gathers in Gaza Strip. Where is Hamas going?
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sat Oct 14 19:38:39 2023 UTC)
Based on the orientation of the Israeli flags and poles, the photo appears to be flipped horizontally. Searching for the photo, flipped horizontally, leads to multiple iterations in online posts in March 2022, captioned as Israeli "special forces veterans" in Ukraine.
The photo dates back even further, however, as the image has circulated online since at least 2018.
The image can be seen in an article on Ukrainian news website 24.tv.ua in April 2018 as well as in July 2018 on JewishJournal.com, a Jewish news outlet based in Los Angeles.
Similar photos can be seen on a Facebook page supporting the IDF in 2015, an event poster in 2016 on the Twitter account of a Hebrew academy in California, and an event page in 2019 on the University of Connecticut's website, which also show soldiers with light blue berets and brown or sand colored dirt on the ground with hills or mountains in the background.
Footage of Israeli troops and military vehicles gathered near Gaza is viewable in coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict by various news agencies.
