The world of news is complex – and false stories and images are often widely shared on social media. Blasting News’s editorial team spots the most popular hoaxes and misleading information every week to help you discern truth from falsehood. Here are some of the most shared false claims of this week, of which none are legit.

Please send us tips or claims to check at this email factcheck@blastingnews.com or at this X/Twitter account @BNFactCheck. Read this page to better understand our submission guidelines.

Video does not show Gaza hospital being attacked by Israel in 2023

False claim: Social media users around the world have shared a compilation of CCTV footage showing an explosion in what appears to be different areas of a hospital.

According to the posts, the images show Al-Sadaqa Hospital in Gaza City being attacked by Israeli forces.

Truth:

  • Also known as the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Al-Sadaqa has, according to official information, been closed since the beginning of November due to a lack of fuel. According to Turkish authorities, the hospital was damaged after an Israeli airstrike on October 30.
  • A reverse image search, however, shows that the images shared on social media are not from Al-Sadaqa Hospital, but from the Omar bin Abdul Aziz hospital in Aleppo, Syria.
  • The images are part of a video published in August 2016 on the YouTube channels of the Aleppo Media Center (AMC) and the Syrian Network for Human Rights. The description of one of the posts indicates that the scenes show an attack by government forces on the Omar bin Abdul Aziz hospital, located in an area of Aleppo controlled at the time by rebels.

Video does not show Hamas tunnel under Gaza hospital

False claim: Social media users in Italy have shared a video that appears to show an underground bunker full of ammunition and military supplies, accompanied by the claim that the images were recorded in a Hamas tunnel built under a hospital in Gaza City.

The claim started to circulate amid the current siege by Israeli forces of al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, on the grounds that the site was used by Hamas to prepare military operations and hide hostages and weapons.

Truth:

  • A reverse image search shows that the video was originally published on X by Israeli journalist Hanan Amiur on August 31, before the current conflict between Israel and Hamas. According to the caption of the post, the images were recorded in the West Bank.
  • An article published by the Israel Hayom newspaper on August 31 reports that Israeli security forces raided a Palestinian workshop in the West Bank town of Beitunia, which was allegedly being used to manufacture weapons. A video available in the article, recorded by Israeli forces, shows the same place that appears in the images shared on social media.

UK government page does not show Israel is a British company

False claim: Social media users around the world have shared a screenshot of a page from Companies House, the British government agency responsible for the public registry of companies in the UK, allegedly showing “The State of Israel” as a company.

According to the posts, the image is a proof that Israel is not a country, but a company controlled by British elites.

Truth:

  • The screenshot actually shows an authentic listing of the State of Israel at Companies House as an “overseas entity” on the Register of Foreign Entities (ROE), and not as a company.
  • Created in August 2022 to, according to the British government, “crack down on foreign criminals using UK property to launder money,” the Register of Overseas Entities requires “anonymous foreign owners of UK property to reveal their real identities.”
  • According to a Companies House publication on the British government's website, an overseas entity “is a legal entity, such as a company or other organisation [including foreign governments], that has legal personality and is governed by the law of a country or territory outside the UK.”

U.S.

infant mortality rise in 2022 not linked to vaccines

False claim: After a November 1 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed a 3% increase in the infant mortality rate in the U.S. in 2022, the first in 20 years, social media users started sharing posts suggesting that vaccines were responsible for this increase.

Truth:

  • The “Vital Statistics Rapid Release” report, published by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHA), shows that the provisional (not final) infant mortality rate increased from 5.44 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2021 to 5.6 deaths in 2022 (a 3% increase), after having registered a 22% decline in the period from 2002 to 2022.
  • The document, however, does not list any causes for the increase in the mortality rate, nor does it make any mention of vaccines.

South Korea has not given up its claims over a disputed island chain

False claim: Social media users in South Korea have shared screenshots of news reports by local broadcaster MBC, accompanied by the claim that the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol had given up the country's claims over the chain of rocky islands known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, which have been administered by South Korea since 1945, following the surrender of Japan, its former colonial ruler, at the end of the Second World War.

Truth:

  • In a statement to AFP, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said there had been no recent change in the country's territorial claim over the island chain.
  • A reverse image search shows that the screenshots shared on social media were taken from MBC newscasts that aired on June 13, 2023 and October 26, 2021.
  • Available on MBC's YouTube page, the reports talk about issues linked to the island chain, without, however, making any mention of the question of its sovereignty.
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