Accounts on social media circulated a video that its publishers claimed documented Israeli helicopters flying over the eastern Daraa countryside.
The fact-checking team verified the claim by contacting the platform's correspondent in Daraa and found that the aircraft seen over the province were American, not Israeli. The correspondent confirmed that the helicopters' route was tracked, showing that they had taken off from the capital Damascus and landed at an American base in Jordan.
Why is this claim misleading?
An error in identity attribution: The helicopters were attributed to Israel even though they were American, giving the scene an escalatory dimension at odds with the reality of the flights, which departed from Damascus and headed to an American base in Jordan.
