As France prepared a massive security operation to protect the Olympic Games, a video purporting to depict Hamas threatening to attack Paris circulated on social media. But the Palestinian militant group has denied creating the clip, the French Interior Ministry has said it has not been able to verify its authenticity and experts say it appears to be part of a disinformation campaign.
“Islamist releases video threatening the Paris Olympics”, says the caption of an Instagram from July 23, 2024 video.
The clip shows a person wearing a keffiyeh covering their face and a top decorated with the Palestinian flag speaking in Arabic. English subtitles indicate that the speaker is threatening the presence of Israeli athletes at the 2024 Olympic Games with “rivers of blood” and denouncing French support for the nation in its war against Hamas..
In the days leading up to the opening ceremony on July 26, posts sharing different versions of the video spread across the world. Instagram, X, Facebook It is other websites with subtitles in several languages, including French, Portuguese It is Spanish.
French security forces are at your maximum alert to prevent terrorist attacks from spoiling the start of the first Paris Olympic Games in 100 years, and Israel warned of potential threats from Iranian-backed groups against Israeli athletes and tourists. But many were quick to question the authenticity of the video, pointing out Arabic errors and that the accounts sharing it to appear be affiliated with pro-Russian networks rather than Hamas.
“The French secret services and their partners were unable to authenticate the veracity of this video,” said French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on July 24.
Hamas has denied responsibility for the video, according to the jihadist threat analysis group SITE (filed here). The threat monitor quoted Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official based in Qatar, as saying: “This fabricated video is part of Zionist propaganda to incite against the Palestinians resistance.”
‘False flag’
Darmanin said the is the majority of those who share the video “they were either pro-Kremlin or pro-Russia accounts.” However, he refused to attribute them to the Russian state itself, saying the posts could have come from a “sphere that could want to spread disinformation (against) our country.”
Moscow has denied be involved in this type of operation.
Foreign Interference Researcher David Colón said in French publish in X (archived here It is here) that one of the most viewed posts sharing the video comes from the pro-Russia account @aussiecossack.
A security source who asked not to be named told AFP: “Early analyzes point to a Russian operation under a ‘false flag’ due to a set of clues.”
A “false flag“The attack is a warfare ploy in which attackers operate under false or blurred identities to deceive opponents and potentially trigger an escalation of violence. conflict.
One of the first accounts to post the video on X was @endzionismo24. O now suspended The page was created in February but remained silent for several months.
He began sharing content a few days before the video was published, a typical pattern of inauthentic accounts spreading disinformation. Many of the posts were anti-Israel.
“The video was then reposted on X by accounts known to be part of Russian networks and was rebroadcast by African sites known to be relay points for Russians,” the security source said.
Along with physical security around the Games, authorities are worried about cyber attacks and disinformation. France, in particular, is a target, given its support for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.
Inconsistent language and signs
One The Arabic-speaking AFP journalist said the man in the video made several grammar and syntax errors. Many online criticized his pronunciation of “Allahu Akbar” (God is the Greatest) at the end of the clip.
Another security source told AFP that “the visual codes of Hamas propaganda are absent” in the video.
Hamas militants killed 1,197 people in Israel on October 7, 2023 attack — most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
Of the 251 people taken hostage that day, 111 are still detained in the Gaza Strip, 39 of whom, according to the military, are dead.
Since the start of the war, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to data provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.
According to the Israeli military, 327 soldiers have been killed in the Gaza military campaign since the ground offensive began on October 27.
The Palestinian demand that Israel be excluded from the Paris Games due to the war in Gaza was rejected by the head of the International Olympic Committee and French President Emmanuel Macron. Athletes from both delegations participated on July 26 opening ceremonies.
Read more AFP reports on misinformation surrounding the Olympics here.
July 26, 2024 This article has been updated to change a reference link in paragraph 8.
