At the beginning of 2024, a video spread in Telegram channels in which the Israeli military allegedly declared: his subordinates were shot from the tank at home, and the dead were declared victims of Hamas. We checked the reliability of such publications.

On January 1–2, in the Russian-speaking segment of Telegram, a 32-second video became a viral, in which a man in a cype and military uniform with a chevron in the form of an Israeli flag, standing against the background of a destroyed and partially burned-up building, speaks English with a person who is behind the scenes. The record is accompanied by Arabic subtitles. In signatures to the video, bloggers argue: the colonel of the Israeli Defense Army (IDF) Golani Vach admits that on October 7 last year, the tanks were fired at the houses where peaceful Israelis lived, and these 15 people (including eight children) were subsequently issued as a Hamas atrocities. Similar publications appeared, in particular, in Telegram channels Colonelcassad (282,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Kirill Fedorov / War History Weapons"(138 000) and"Palestine in Russian"(122 000). Users also shared this video Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, Livejournal and other social networks and a blog-platform.

https://youtu.be/nkl00udmzmzmg?si=tyrismv6woos-qmf

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas began the massive shelling of Israel, at the same time hundreds of militants penetrated the regions of the country bordering the gas sector. For published in December clarified The data of the Israeli authorities, 1139 people were killed during the attack, more than 240 were Drawn up In gas as hostages. Independent Israeli media leads their statistics: Haaretz newspaper by the end of December Confirmed The death of 1219 Israelis (the military, who were killed in the course of an attack of clashes), the portal, also includes them. Newsru.co.il By January 10 - 1398 people (the editors also take into account the victims of the Hezbollah shelling in the north of the country). By data Hamas controlled by the Ministry of Health of the Gas Sector, in this region, after the start of the response of the IDF, more than 23,000 people died. Independently, this statistics cannot be confirmed.

The hero of the viral video is indeed a colonel for the IDF GOLAN WAH. This is a rather famous military man who several times headed Israeli rescue units that helped cope with the consequences of natural disasters in different countries of the world. So, in January 2019, TV channel I24 told About his work in Brazil, where, due to the destruction of the dam, hundreds of local residents went missing. In December 2021, The Jerusalem Post newspaper Published A report on the participation of VAH in a rescue operation after the collapse of a residential building in Florida. And in April 2023, The Times of Israel reportedthat the Turkish president awarded the Israeli military for help in the search operation at the site of the destructive earthquake. All these materials were accompanied by photographs of the colonel.

After the attack, Hamas Vakh, being a personnel military man, joined the IDF operation to repel the attacks of the militants. What he saw in the war zone, the colonel subsequently comments to the world's largest media, for example The New York Times, AFP And CBS. Most of the military statements were published in mid -October, when the IDF was knocked out by militants from the border kibbutsev and began inspection of the settlements where he discovered dead people and plundered houses. In particular, it is the WHA testifiedthat I saw the corpse of a child, decapitated during the attack of Hamas.

The video, which became in early January 2024 in the Runet, apparently, was also filmed in mid -October. On the record between the Israeli colonel and the person standing behind the scenes, such a dialogue occurs:

- Our tanks ... attacked.
- Shot on them?
- Yes. (Gluing.) Inside this house there were 15 more burnt people, including eight young children. Here is that corner. (Gluing.) Because they were blocked in this house when we had to recapture the entire settlement. And it was impossible to do without a tank.

At the end of the video, the logo of the Turkish state news agency Anadolu appears briefly. On the website of this media on December 6 was Published Video of a conversation with Vakh, lasting for more than three minutes and not containing mounting speakers. The publication clarifies that the record was made on October 14, 2023 in Kibbutz, it was chilly near the border with the gas sector, and Colonel Tshal told foreign journalists that he saw in this village after his release.

- This is the place where you found a couple?
- Directly where you are standing, there were two couples chained into handcuffs: two men and two women. Inside this house there were 15 more burnt people, including eight young children. Here is that corner. They gathered them, killed and burned them.
- Have you seen?
- I took them out.
“But where does the destruction come from?” I apologize, but where does the destruction come from?
- These destruction are caused by the fact that our tanks ... attacked. (In the original, Vakh says “this destruction was a case of out tanks’ attack ”; probably he made a reservation and wanted to say the Because, because otherwise his statement is pointless. - Ed.)
- Shot on them?
- Yes. Because they were blocked in this house when we had to recapture the entire settlement. And it was impossible to do without a tank.

Further, another journalist asks his question: "How many people were here and how much survived?" “No one has survived this house. From other buildings we saved many. But 19 people died from this house, including eight children, ”Vakh replies. After that, reporters and the military proceed to the discussion of other topics related to the attack of Hamas and the liberation of the border kibbets.

It is noteworthy that on December 7 Anadolu Placed In the X, a shortened version of the video with the signature of "remarks of the representative of the military raises more questions about the role of Israeli tanks in the deaths of peaceful Israelis." The article on the agency’s website with reference to publications in the Israeli media provides, in particular, certificate A military personnel who refused to shoot a tank at a residential building in a holit before receiving confirmation that there is no civilian inside.

Israeli publications really wrote about the possible responsibility of the military for the death of several civilians, captured by militants during an attack on the border kibbuts. However, it was about such materials about Beeri, and not about holith, where they shot a video with a vach. So, Newsru.co.il Published An interview with one of the local residents about how Hamas first entered Beeri on October 7, and then he was released by the IDF. The woman claims that the military shot the dining room, where the militants held the hostages, although they knew that there were peaceful people. In January 2024, relatives of a 12-year-old girl who died in Beeri Demanded From the Israeli authorities to investigate the circumstances of her death.

“Verified” failed to find similar reports about events in Holit. Neither from the video Anadolu, nor from the reports of other media, made at the same time, it does not follow that Vakh was recognized in shooting from the tank at civilians, according to users of social networks. Then, in mid -October, in the commentary to the Canadian Global News military explainedthat the civilians were killed by Hamas militants before the house hit. In the video published by the British publication The Sun, Colonel Druzal, standing at the same building, says that in a few days he found a pattern: the militants gathered the inhabitants of Kibbutz in one place, killed them, and the bodies burned them.

Since in the English -language segment of the Internet, the viral video spread earlier than the Russian (no later than the second half of November), facts from it paid attention to it Politifact, Lead Stories And Check Your Fact. They sent a request for a commentary to the IDF. Official representatives of the Israeli military confirmed: the open access extended a more complete version of the video, which clearly shows that the Vakh described the scene that he and his colleagues during the release of Kibbutz Holit.

At the same time, the Colonel Druzal, apparently, incorrectly called the number of people killed in Holit. According to Haaretz and Newsru.co.il, accessible at the time of writing, in this kibbutz 13 and 14 people, respectively, spoke about 15 bodies found in only one building, and four more nearby. He also claimed that eight killed were children - in the lists of Israeli media there are no minors who died in Holit, the age was not indicated only by seven victims.

Thus, in the viral video, Golan Vakh does not admit that his subordinates fired from a tank at the house with peaceful Israelis inside, who were subsequently declared victims of Hamas - the video was mounted. At the full entry, the VAH, although he says that they struck the building from armored vehicles, notes that the civilians in the kibbutz were killed by militants before the counterattack of the Israeli army. “Verified” failed to find evidence of eyewitnesses that refute these words. At the same time, a resident of at least one other kibbutz said that civilians were killed by the Israeli military during the battle with the terrorists, and the relatives of the one who died asked the authorities to conduct an appropriate investigation.

Photo on the cover: IDF Via Wikimedia Commons