Simulated video game clips shared as visuals of Israel air defence system destroying Palestinian missiles - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 21, 2021
Multiple videos are being shared on social media claiming it as visuals of Israel air defence system destroying the Palestinian missiles in the air. They can be seen here and here. Another video is shared claiming it as the visuals of Palestinians firing missiles at Israel. In the wake of the ongoing violent conflict between Israel and Palestine, these posts are being shared on social media. Let’s verify the claims made in these posts.
Claim: Videos sharing the visuals of Israel air defence system destroying Palestinian missiles.
Fact: The first two videos show video game simulation clips created using the ARMA 3 video game software. The last video shows the Russian military launching hundreds of missiles during a war game held in 2018. These videos have nothing to do with the ongoing violent conflict between Israel and Palestine. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Video-1 (archived):
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a video with similar visuals is found uploaded on 22 July 2020 by a YouTube channel, ‘Compared Comparison’. This video was uploaded with the title, ‘ArmA 3 – Counter-Rocket Artillery Mortar System in Action – Shooting Down Jets – Phalanx CIWS – Sim’. ‘Compared Comparison’ YouTube channel shares modern and realistic cinematic war films using Arma 3 video game software. This YouTube channel had shared multiple other simulated video clips that were created using the Arma 3 video game software. They can be seen here and here.
ARMA 3 is a virtual reality-based military tactical shooter video game. This game was developed and published by Bohemia Interactive through the Steam distribution platform.
Video-2 (archived):
On reverse image search, a video with similar visuals is found uploaded on 29 January 2021 by a YouTube channel, ‘Compared Comparison’. This video was uploaded with the title, ‘ArmA 3 – MiG-29 in Action vs C-RAM – Phalanx CIWS – C RAM – Tracer Firing – Simulation’. The description of the video stated it as a simulated video game clip created using the ARMA 3 video game software application.
Video-3 (archived):
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a video with similar visuals is found in an article published by ‘The Sun’ news website, on 14 September 2018. This article reported it as the visuals of a large military exercise conducted by the Russian Defence Forces in September 2018. Russian military forces had reportedly launched hundreds of missiles during their largest war game held on 14 September 2018.  A few other news articles published on this military exercise can be seen here and here.
Amid the ongoing violent conflict between Israel and Palestine, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups had reportedly fired more than 2300 rockets at Israel.  Israel Defence Forces had announced that their air defence missile system, Iron Dome had successfully intercepted 90% of the rockets fired by Palestinian militant groups. Israel’s Iron Dome defence system is specifically designed to neutralise the rockets or missiles aimed at Israel. The videos shared in the posts have nothing to do with Israel’s Iron Dome air defence missile system.
To sum it up, simulated video game clips are being shared as visuals of Israel air defence system destroying the Palestinian missiles.