On October 8, an anonymous X user, atGeoPolndIR, posted a video of people wearing military attire pulling men out of an SUV and claimed it showed Hamas detaining Israeli generals. Despite atGeoPolndIR’s infinitesimal following, the post went viral. It was viewed, shared, commented on and quoted by thousands of users.
The atGeoPolndIR post read:
“Several high profile Israeli General's captured by Hammas.” [original grammar and spelling.]
That is false.
In fact, Azerbaijan’s DTX intelligence service originally shared this video on October 5 to show it had detained three former Nagorno-Karabakh leaders.
They were Bako Sahakyan, the former president of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arkadi Gukasian, the former Nagorno-Karabakh foreign minister; and Davit Ishkhanyan, the former president/speaker of Nagorno-Karabakh’s legislative branch.
They were captured after Azerbaijan’s September 19 lightning attack on the ethnic Armenian enclave.
Despite the Azerbaijani flag and DTX embroidering on the soldiers’ uniforms, this video has been making rounds on social media since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, accompanied by the false claim that it shows Hamas capturing Israeli generals.
atGeoPolndIR's post gained over 100,000 views, and while commenters were quick to point out Azerbaijan’s flag as proof that the video is misinformation, many accepted the video as fact.
X user atShayan86 debunked the post, noting that the video had been viewed 1.3 million times. Reuters also fact-checked the claim that the video showed Hamas capturing Israeli generals.
