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Aaj Tak, ABP, Zee News, others air 2023 footage of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza as visuals of India’s Operation Sindoor – Alt News

    After the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, 2025, targeting nine terrorist infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), purported visuals of the strike, showing seven missiles being fired into the distance, went viral. Media outlets, journalists and social media users shared the clip, claiming this was footage from the Indian operation.

    The military strike by India comes days after terrorists, allegedly linked to the outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), killed 26 civilians in Kashmir’s Pahalgam. The Ministry of Defence has called the strikes “measured and non-escalatory” and said that no Pakistani military facilities were targeted. The Hindu reported that the terror camps targeted are linked to various banned terror outfits, including LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen. According to an Indian Express report, four of the nine sites India claims it has struck are Bahawalpur and Muridke (in Punjab, Pakistan), and Muzaffarabad and Kotli in PoK.

    Hindi media outlet Aaj Tak aired the visuals of missiles being fired in a segment hosted by its senior journalist Anjana Om Kashyap. In its reportage, the outlet counted seven strikes in the city of Bahawalpur alone. In an X post, the channel shared the same visual with the caption, “Here’s how Jaish’s terrorist base was destroyed”. (Archive)

    ABP, another Hindi news outlet, also aired the purported visuals in a segment hosted by one of its star anchors, Chitra Tripathi. (Archive)

    Zee News Gujarati used a screengrab from the video in a photo gallery on Operation Sindoor, while News18 Bangla, Business Today, Amar Ujala and Bartaman used similar screenshots from the video in their articles.

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    Well-known News18 journalist, Rubika Liyaquat, also shared the video on X along with a list of the nine terrorist hideouts where the Indian army struck. (Archive)

    Senior journalist and executive editor of TV9 Network, Aditya Raj Kaul, who has been fact-checked by Alt News several times in the past, also shared the footage with the caption “Missiles fired at Kotli, Muzaffarabad, and Bahawalpur—confirmed by DG ISPR to Pakistani journalists. India goes after terror state Pakistan.” (Archive)

    Digital media outlet NEWJ also shared the video with the same claim. (Archive)

    X user @MeghUpdates, who often shares far-Right content and has been fact-checked by Alt News several times, shared the video claiming that India launched a missile attack on Pakistan. At the time of writing this, the post had garnered over 680,000 views. (Archive)

    Pakistan-based journalist Sabir Shakir, who is associated with local news outlet ARY, shared the video with an Urdu caption that reads ‘Indian attack in Bahawalpur’. (Archive)

    Several other X handles, including propaganda outlet Panchjanya, amplified the video with the same claim. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

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    Fact Check

    A reverse image search of key frames from the visuals shared above led us to a news report on Sputnik Armenia’s website from October 13, 2023 in which the same video was used. The Sputnik report said that Israel had struck 750 military targets in the Gaza Strip.

    We also found a statement by the Israeli Air Force from October 13, 2023, claiming the same.

    Several other social media accounts, too, shared this video on October 13. Here, here, here, here and here are links to their X posts. Screenshots below:

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    The video resurfaced again a few days later and was used by media outlet Al Mayadeen in its video report on the bombings in Gaza on October 23, 2023. On October 23, senior BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh, had pointed out on X that the visuals were “from 10 days ago”.

    As it stands, several Indian media outlets ran a 1.5-year-old footage of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza with claims that these were visuals from India’s military operation against Pakistan-based terror outfits on May 7, 2025. These channels aired the footage without verification and these claims were also amplified by senior journalists and trickled down to social media users, resulting in misinformation regarding a sensitive issue spiralling.

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