A viral video on social media claims to show Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas and locked in cages. Hamas abducted civilians, including children, during terrorist attacks on Israel. But the video is no proof of this; it was already circulating on the net before the attacks. Five children sit side by side behind bars. A man’s laughter and street noise can be heard. This scene is from a video that reached hundreds of thousands of social network users days after the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023. Posts on X (formerly Twitter), Tiktok and Telegram said the video showed Israeli children abducted by Hamas and locked in cages.
But the video was not made in connection with the Hamas terrorist attacks. The creator of the video published it several days before the large-scale attack, according to his own statement, and the children are relatives of his. Screenshots published by fact-check editors of the original video, which has since been deleted, confirm this statement.