A video is being shared claiming that Israeli soldiers are greasing bullets with pig fat. The post calls this a smart way to deal with Muslims. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Israeli soldiers greasing bullets with pig fat during Israel-Hamas war.
Fact: While there is no credible information on the details of the video, the uniform worn by the soldier in the video does not resemble that of an IDF soldier. The soldier’s headgear is similar to that of Ukrainian army. There are reports of Ukrainian Azov fighters greasing bullets with pig fat to use against Muslim Chechens during the war with Russia. It is also to be noted that both Judaism and Islam have prohibited pork and its products. Moreover, by the time this video is shared, Israel’s defense forces were not yet ready for ground invasion in Gaza territory. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
On conducting a reverse image search of the keyframes of the video, we did not find any credible source mentioning the details of the video. A search with relevant keywords also did not yield any credible reports on Israeli soldiers greasing bullets with pig fat during Israel-Hamas war. However, we came across old videos and posts that show Ukrainian Azov fighters greasing bullets with pig fat to use against Muslim Chechens who were deployed in Ukraine (here, here, and here).
Based on this information, we compared the uniforms worn by Ukrainian soldiers and Israeli soldiers. We found that the IDF gear (here and here) looks different from what is worn by the person in the viral video
Further, We observed that the Ukrainian army has a similar front mount to their helmet as the person’s helmet in the viral video (here and here). Based on this evidence, it seems more likely that the viral video originated from Ukraine rather than Israel.
In subsequent research on war tactics employed by the IDF forces, we found the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the National Library of Medicine mentioning that Judaism and Islam have prohibited eating pork and its products. In Judaism, pork is considered non-kosher and is prohibited for consumption. In Islam, the predominant religion in Palestine, pork is also considered haram and thus prohibited.
Moreover, by the time this video was shared on social media, Israel’s Defence forces were not ready for the ground invasion of Gaza territory. They were confined to mere drone and missile attacks. We found that the video was first published by a Telegram channel on 11 October 2023. Israel is ready to deploy ground forces only on 15 October 2023 (here and here).
To sum up, an unrelated video is shared of an IDF soldier applying pig fat to a bullet during the Israel-Hamas war.
Update (17 October 2023): This article is updated to include comparison visuals of the soldier’s uniform in the viral video with that of IDF and Ukrainian soldiers.
