Old Video From Lebanese Revolution Has Been Linked Falsely To The Death Of Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah died in an Israeli Airstrike on 27 September 2024. The body of Nasrallah has been recovered from the site of the Israeli Airstrike in the Southern suburbs of Beirut according to reports. On this backdrop, a video of two women singing with a crowd of people holding flags went viral on social media claiming it to be the celebration of Lebanese people after the death of Nasrallah. Sharing the video on Facebook, a user wrote, “The Lebanese people were also celebrating Nasrallah’s elimination”.

Facebook Link | Archived Link.

Another similar post can be seen here. Archived Link.

However, as we investigated, we came to know that the claim was false. The video is not related to the death of Hassan Nasrallah. Here’s the fact check.

Fact Check

In the beginning, we checked the comment section of the video and noticed that few users commented on the video as an old one. 

Moving forward, taking some screenshots from the viral video we conducted a reverse image search and a relevant keyword search that led us to a video uploaded on TikTok on 20 January 2020. Using VPN we accessed the TikTok video. The video was the same as the viral video. 

Archived Link

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah died on the last 27 September and the viral video has been on the internet since 2020. This makes it clear that the viral video has nothing to do with the death of Nasrallah.

Further, on the same TikTok account, we found a clarification post that stated, “My friends, be careful of all the fake posts and don’t believe everything they share. They used a very old video of mine from 2020, claiming it shows me and my friends celebrating the assassination of a political figure. JUST TO CLARIFY: THE VIDEO IS OLD FROM THE LEBANESE REVOLUTION, AND I DON’T LIVE IN LEBANON CURRENTLY”.

Archived Link

It is worth mentioning that The 17 October Protests, commonly called the 17 October Revolution were a series of civil protests in Lebanon that began after the Lebanese cabinet announced financial measures on 17 October 2019. These national protests were triggered by planned taxes on gasoline, tobacco, and VoIP calls on applications such as WhatsApp, but quickly expanding into a country-wide condemnation of sectarian rule, the stagnation of the economy, unemployment (which reached 46% in 2018), endemic corruption in the public sector, legislation that was perceived to shield the ruling class from accountability (such as banking secrecy) and failures of the government to provide basic services such as electricity, water, and sanitation. The protests created a political crisis in Lebanon, with Prime Minister Saad Hariri tendering his resignation, not demanding any new governmental needs of being the prime minister and echoing protesters’ demands for a government of independent specialists. A cabinet headed by Hassan Diab was formed in 2020 but also resigned in the wake of the 2020 Beirut explosion.

From this, it’s clear that the claim is false. The video is old and has no link to the death of Hassan Nasrallah.

Conclusion 

From our investigation, we can say that the claim is false. The viral video is old, from 2020. The video showed people gathered for the Lebanese Revolution. This has nothing to do with the death of Hassan Nasrallah.