Old visuals are being shared in light of the recent raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli security forces - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 19, 2022
A social media post accompanying a video of a man offering prayers whilst military forces gather in front of him is being widely shared in the light of the recent raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces. These visuals are being shared with an accompanying text that reads ‘Palestinian young man weeps in tears during du’aa for Al Aqsa’. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of a Palestinian man offering prayer during the recent raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces.
Fact: These are old visuals and multiple reports suggest that these visuals are related to clashes that broke out between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in July 2017, over the installation of security measures at the entrance of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. These visuals have nothing to do with the recent raids of Israeli forces. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
According to the news reports, Israeli forces have raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem recently to facilitate the entry of settlers to the holy site. This led to clashes between the Israeli forces and the Palestinians, wherein more than 20 Palestinians and Israelis have been wounded.
However, the viral visuals shared in the post are not related to these recent raids. Reverse image search of the visuals yielded multiple 2017 blog reports, which published the same visuals. All of these reports were published in the month of July 2017 (here, here & here)
As per these reports, Palestinians had staged a sit-in protest near Al-Asbat gate of Masjid Al-Aqsa, over the installation of metal detectors at the entrances of Masjid Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. Further, the report states that Palestinians continued to perform evening prayers at the Al-Esbat gate, despite the intervention of the Israeli forces.
Further search with relevant keywords yielded multiple mainstream media news reports, dated July 2017, that reported the clashes between the Palestinians and Israeli security forces over the implementation of new security measures at the Al-Aqsa Mosque entrance (here, here & here)
As per another news report, ‘Islamic leaders have called on Muslims to boycott the Jerusalem holy site after Israeli authorities installed metal detectors at the compound gates.’
Although these mainstream news reports confirm the clashes between  Palestinians and Israeli security forces in July 2017, we could not independently verify whether the viral visuals are related to these clashes. However, the presence of these visuals on the internet at least from 2017 proves they are not related to the recent raids at Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces.
To sum it up, old visuals are being shared in light of the recent raid on Al- Aqsa Mosque by Israeli security forces.