By Anmol Alphonso
An old video from the Philippines of a Catholic church being vandalised by terrorists affiliated to the Islamic State (IS) is being shared on social media with a false claim that it shows a Baptist church in Gaza being attacked by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
At least 1,403 Israelis and 3,478 Palestinians have been killed so far in the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas which began on October 7, 2023, after the militant group attacked and killed Israeli forces and took nearly 200 hostages. A massive blast at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza on October 18, 2023, resulted in the killing of nearly 500 Palestinians according Gaza health officials and triggered global outrage. Hamas, which controls Gaza claimed Israel was responsible for the strike whereas Israel has blamed the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) for the blast at the hospital which was founded in 1882 and is run by the Anglican church.
Since the beginning of the conflict, unverified and unrelated imagery has gone viral on many social media platforms.
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The 33 seconds-long clip shows armed gunmen throw a cross on the floor and then destroy it. The clip also shows the gun destroying other Christian statues.
The video was posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) by the verified handle Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala) with the caption, "#HamasTerrorists destroying a Baptist Church in #Gaza city and kicking the statue of Jesus , is this their fight to reclaim their land or is it Jihad against every other religion in this world , ask yourselves !!"
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The video is being shared on Twitter by several other verified handles with the same false claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from Marawi, Philippines in 2017 when terrorists affiliated to the Islamic State vandalised a Catholic church.
Taking a hint from the replies stating that the video is from Philippines, we ran a keyword search on YouTube and found that the original video was uploaded in June 2017.
The New York Post had posted the video on YouTube on June 6, 2017, with the caption, "Islamic extremists defaced a Catholic church in the Philippines, destroying many religious relics and setting the altar on fire. The video was released by the Amaq News Agency, an affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist network, captured in Marawi."
The same visuals can be seen in this video below as in the viral video
We also found other news reports on the same incident. Amaq, the Islamic State news agency released the video back in June 2017 which showed Islamic terrorists destroying the Marawi cathedral and later setting it on fire. In the video the militants are seen smashing religious icons and tearing down the images of Pope Francis and emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, while shouting “Allahu Akbar.” The report further states that the video showed members of the Maute terror group which claims affiliation with IS, vandalising the Church.
The incident in the video was also confirmed by the Bishop Prelate of Marawi, Edwin de la Peña who had then condemned the destruction of the church. Bishop de la Peña had then told CBCP, the news agency of the Filipino bishops that, “We are angered by what happened. Our faith has really been trampled on.”
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