Does a video show a Hamas soldier hitting an Israeli soldier who was allegedly shooting at children? No, that's not true: The footage stems from a video game and is not an authentic video of soldiers fighting.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by @beomeeya4 on Nov. 22, 2023 under the Korean title "어린이들한테 총쏘는 이스라엘군 패는 하마스?? 정신차려 이 미친 새끼야!" As translated by Lead Stories staff:
Hamas beating an Israeli soldier who was shooting at children?? Come to your senses, you crazy bastard!
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Nov 29 00:32:46 2023 UTC)
The TikTok clip shows two men in combat gear. One man hits the other individual, who then falls on the ground. The video does not show authentic footage of a Hamas and Israeli soldier, however.
The watermark @austin_but_yes leads to another TikTok video shared by the same username on Nov. 18, 2023. Some of the English text visible behind the Korean text in the first TikTok video is seen in the second video, which was shared as a meme about couples, as seen in the screenshot below:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Nov 29 00:32:46 2023 UTC)
The moment the individual on the right gets hit (around the 0:05 timestamp), "+175 XP FINISHING MOVE" in yellow is visible on the screen, indicating the clip stems from a video game.
Some users in the comments pointed to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III video game, developed by Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. The game was released on Nov. 10, 2023.
A "finishing move" is a player mechanic in the Modern Warfare III game, as well as other games of the Call of Duty series.
The same "+175 XP FINISHING MOVE" in yellow can be seen in multiple user-uploaded gameplay footage on YouTube, all captioned as showing a "finishing move" in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.
A spokesperson for Activision did not immediately respond to Lead Stories' request for comment.
