Hamas killing men by throwing them off a building? No, viral video is from Iraq, 2015

Trigger Warning: Death. Fall from Height.

Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, several images and videos are viral on social media claiming to be representative of the current situation. Among them is an alarming video apparently of Hamas militants throwing four persons off the roof of a building. Several social media users have amplified the video with the same claim. Verified X account @Michael_Wgd tweeted the video and wrote, “Hamas executes citizens who are suspected of collaborating with Israel by throwing them from the roof of a building!”. (Archive)

Hamas executes citizens who are suspected of collaborating with Israel by throwing them from the roof of a building! pic.twitter.com/eJbOrBVxFv

— Michael Weingardt (@Michael_Wgd) December 2, 2023

Another user @Likeshesays also tweeted the viral video with the same claim. (Archive)

Hamas executes people by throwing them off a roof of a building… pic.twitter.com/GnoN9QoTnR

— Denise (@Likeshesays) December 2, 2023

Several other users on X have also amplified the viral video. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

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The video is also viral on Facebook.

Fact Check

Upon a reverse image search, we came across several news reports from July 2015 containing images clicked during the incident seen in the viral video. British outlet The Mirror reported that the viral video showed ISIS executioners executing ‘gay’ men by throwing them off a building. The report mentions that four men were killed by the terrorists. They were tied up and blindfolded, and carried to the edge of a building in Fallujah, Iraq. They were then thrown off.

Another report by The Mirror on the same incident contains more images released by ISIS that show the execution. The building seen in the viral video is identical to the one seen in the pictures. Moreover, a white car parked beside the building in the viral video is also visible in the images. A man dressed in black is seen standing at the bottom of the building in both the viral video and the images, confirming that they were captured at the same spot. For comparison, we have placed a still from the video and an image from The Mirror report side by side.

Both in the viral video and in the pictures, one can see several shops with signboards on the ground floor of the building. One of the names in Arabic “مختبر بغداد” translates to “Baghdad Laboratory”. This corroborates our finding that the incident is from Iraq.

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The incident was also reported by The Daily Mail wherein they stated that ISIS had released photographs of militants hurling four men, accused of homosexuality, off the top of a building in Iraq.

Hence, an old and unrelated incident of ISIS militants pushing men, accused of homosexuality, off the roof of a building in Iraq is being falsely linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. The video is falsely viral with the claim that it shows Hamas militants executing men by pushing them off the building.

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