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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

War & conflict fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about war & conflict. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

5,837 published reviews in this topic

Boatos.orgWar & conflict

LULADRÃO DOOU 25 MILHÕES AO GRUPO TERRORISTA HAMAS

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review examines the circulating allegation that Lula gave R$25 million to Hamas in 2010, including a version phrased exactly as the submitted claim. It says the allegation relied on Lei 12.292 and images purporting to show the law. The investigation checks what that law authorized and whether the donation went to Hamas. The law’s text authorizes the executive branch to donate up to R$25 million to the Palestinian National Authority, in support of the Palestinian economy and Gaza’s reconstruction. The review says the Brazilian government linked the donation to a UN effort to rebuild Gaza. It emphasizes that the law does not name Hamas as the recipient and describes the Palestinian Authority as controlled by Fatah, a political rival of Hamas. Thus, the claim turns an authorized donation for a named Palestinian institution and purpose into an alleged payment to Hamas. The article also reports that a 2023 government statement said there was no Brazilian government donation to Hamas. It notes the government’s stated response to Hamas’s actions, but does not reproduce the full statement. The review concludes that neither Lula nor the Brazilian government donated R$25 million to Hamas in 2010. Its account rests on the law’s stated recipient and purpose, the government’s reported position, and a previous Boatos.org fact-check of the same story.

FACTLYWar & conflict

Viral photo shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sending off his son to the ongoing war

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a photo said to show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sending his son to serve in the current Israel–Palestine conflict. FACTLY’s review identifies the people in the image as Netanyahu, his wife Sara, and their youngest son, Avner, but says the image predates that conflict by years. The review reports that a reverse image search traced the photo to 2014. It says Avner was leaving for army training and waved goodbye to his parents. Thus, the image documents a farewell connected to his army training, not his being sent to the ongoing war. FACTLY adds that Avner began his mandatory three-year army service in 2014, joining the Israel Defense Forces’ Combat Intelligence Collection Corps. It concludes that linking the old photograph to the current conflict gives it a false setting. The review’s evidence addresses the photo’s provenance and the timing of Avner’s service; it does not establish that the photograph itself was taken during the ongoing conflict.

dpaWar & conflict

Un tir de l'armée israélienne a détruit l'église grecque orthodoxe Saint Porphyre à Gaza, le troisième temple chrétien le plus ancien.

Publisher’s rating: L'église Saint Porphyre, un ancien temple chrétien situé dans la bande de Gaza, n'a pas été bombardée par l'armée israélienne. Les responsables du lieu de culte ont publié un démenti sur Facebook et une image satellite du 10 octobre 2023, que la Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) s'est procurée, ne montre pas de dégâts significatifs dans cette zone.

The claim concerned a supposed Israeli military strike that destroyed Saint Porphyrius, a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza, amid the Israeli response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack. The investigation examined that specific church and the circulating destruction reports. It reports that church officials posted a denial on Facebook on October 9, saying the building remained intact and active, and describing the destruction rumors as false. [S1: “Lors de ces représailles, un tir de l'armée israélienne aurait détruit l'église grecque orthodoxe Saint Porphyre à Gaza, prétendent de nombreux internautes sur Facebook et X (ex-Twitter), notamment.”; “Pourtant, les responsables de l'église ont publié un démenti le 9 octobre 2023 sur Facebook. Ils indiquent que l'église est intacte et toujours en activité.”] To check the building’s condition, dpa obtained satellite imagery from Planet. The article explains how investigators identified the church: its location was established relative to a mosque’s minaret, roof, and map markers, and the church’s rounded structure and gray roof were used to recognize it. The image, taken around 3 p.m. local time on October 10, showed the church and roof intact, with no significant nearby damage visible. [S1: “Pour vérifier l'état du bâtiment, la dpa s'est procuré une image auprès du fournisseur d'imagerie satellitaire Planet.”; “Celle-ci montre que le jour de la prise de vue, le 10 octobre vers 15h00 (heure locale à Gaza), l'église et sa toiture (encadrées en jaune sur la photo de ce fact-check) étaient intactes. Il ne semble pas non plus y avoir de dégâts significatifs à proximité.”] The investigation also reports that it found no authenticated images showing damage to this church. It says the images shared online depicted either the church interior or unrelated scenes, and notes that a Greek news site and a Palestinian journalist who had shared the rumor later corrected it. These points support the article’s conclusion that the claim of destruction was contradicted by the available evidence; the satellite image documents the church’s condition on October 10, rather than establishing its condition at every other time. [S1: “On ne trouve par ailleurs aucune image authentifiée des prétendus dégâts occasionnés à l'église Saint Porphyre.”; “Entretemps, un site grec d'information et un journaliste palestinien, qui avaient partagé la rumeur, ont également admis l'erreur et corrigé l'information.”]

DoğrulaWar & conflict

Videonun Filistinlilerin düzenlediği sahte bir cenaze törenini gösterdiği iddiası

Publisher’s rating: Yanlış

The review investigates whether the video depicts Palestinians staging a fake funeral in the context of the Palestine–Israel conflict. It reports finding a YouTube upload from 2020 titled “fake funeral in Jordan, to break the CoronaVirus curfew,” which presents the scene as an attempt to evade Covid-19 restrictions in Jordan. To check that account, the review says it searched using an Arabic translation of the YouTube title and found 2020 Arabic-language news reports and social-media posts describing the video in the same way. It also points to a broadcast by the news organization Orient discussing the video’s viral circulation as a fake funeral arranged to get around a curfew. On that evidence, the review identifies the video as recorded in Jordan in 2020 and connects the staged funeral to efforts to evade Covid-19 curfew measures—not to the Palestine–Israel conflict. The excerpt describes these searches and corroborating references, but does not provide the underlying posts or broadcast for independent examination.

Factcrescendo ThailandWar & conflict

Israeli children kidnapped and kept in cages by Hamas

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review says the video does not show Israeli children captured by Hamas. It reports that the TikTok account owner, who lived in Gaza, said the children were his relatives and that he had posted the video before the October 7 attacks.

FACTLYWar & conflict

Selfie picture of an Israeli couple allegedly killed by Hamas militants during the Nova Trance Music Festival attack

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a selfie said to show an Israeli couple’s final moments before they were killed during the Hamas attack on the Tribe of Nova music festival. FACTLY identifies the people in the image as Amit Bar and Nir, festival attendees, and says the selfie was taken while they hid in bushes to evade the attackers. Its review concludes that the couple survived, so the image does not show a couple who were killed in the attack. The review describes a reverse image search as its method for tracing the picture. That search found the same image in a Mirror article, which identified it as a selfie taken by Amit Bar and Nir while hiding after the attack. FACTLY also reports that Bar shared the photo on Instagram while recounting her experience, and that the couple later spoke about escaping the attack. These accounts support the distinction between a photograph taken during a frightening period of danger and the unsupported claim that the people pictured died. The review quotes Bar explaining that Nir took the selfie because he thought their family might have a keepsake if they died, and that he protected her. That statement conveys their fear at the time, but the review says both were still alive and that Bar later spoke to N12 about their escape. The evidence presented therefore identifies the photograph as genuine but contradicts the claim about the couple’s fate.