Old video from Philippines shared linking to Israel- Hamas conflict

The viral video shows members of the Islamic State (IS) destroy and set fire to a Catholic church in the Philippine city of Marawi in 2017.

A video that shows armed men tearing down a crucifix and toppling and kicking what appears to be a statue of Christ is going viral on social media with a claim that Hamas terrorists are destroying a Baptist church in Gaza.

The caption states “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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Fact Check-

We started our investigation by running a Google reverse image search with the key frames of the video and whose result us to the longer version of same video uploaded by the New York Post on 6 June 2017 with the caption “ISIS defaces and destroys a Catholic church in the Philippines”. The description mentions, “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, and allegedly was shot in the embattled city of Marawi”.

In further search, we discovered that the same video was published by British tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail on 5 June 2017. According to the article, the video had originally been published by Amaq News Agency, a news outlet linked to the Islamic State (ISIS). The video was shot in the Philippine city of Marawi and also shows the same men destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary and various religious objects, as well as tearing down a picture of Pope Francis. 

Marawi is located on the island of Mindanao and has seen clashes between the central Philippine government and various rebel groups, some of which have embraced Islamist objectives for several decades.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the video to be Misleading. The viral video shows members of the Islamic State (IS) destroy and set fire to a Catholic church in Marawi, Philippines, in 2017. It is not related to the current conflict between Israel and Hamas.