Is a video evidence of a Hamas rocket reversing and striking a Gaza hospital in October 2023? No, that's not true: The video had already appeared on social media in 2022, long before the devastating explosion at Al-Ahli hospital, where hundreds were killed.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) by @klaudia_rafael on October 18, 2023, under the title (translated from Hungarian to English by Lead Stories staff):
Hamas shot a rocket to Israel which suddenly turned back and fell on a hospital in Gaza, many people died.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Oct 23 15:25:32 2023 UTC)
The TikTok user implies that the video depicts a rocket striking Gaza's Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on October 17, 2023, resulting in the death of around 500 people. However, the footage dates back to at least 2022 and was shared by multiple social media accounts around August 6, 2022. Allegedly, it shows an Islamic Jihad rocket accidentally falling on Jabaliya camp in Gaza. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel reported and documented a similar incident on August 7, 2022, by the Islamic Jihad that resulted in the death of at least six children.
Various news agencies, including Al Jazeera, Reuters and The Associated Press, have scrutinized the most recent videos of rockets launched on the night of the hospital bombing. None of these videos align with the trajectory depicted in the TikTok video.
