Image shows Israeli tanks in Gaza, no evidence they're 'destroyed' | Fact check

BrieAnna J. Frank and Chris Mueller, USA TODAY
·4 min read
181

The claim: Image shows Israeli tanks ‘destroyed by the resistance’

A Nov. 13 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes an image of several armored vehicles massed on an urban street.

“Israeli tanks destroyed by the resistance,” reads the post's caption.

It received more than 2,500 likes in two days. Another version of the claim was shared more than 500 times on X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: False

There is no evidence the pictured tanks were "destroyed." The Israel Defense Forces said the photo, and others included in a Nov. 13 news update, showed its troops in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces said nothing about tanks being "destroyed" in the update, and experts say the tanks in the image show no signs of being destroyed.

Israel Defense Forces says photo shows ground operation in Gaza

Though there has been documented resistance against Israeli soldiers and tanks in the Gaza Strip, there is no evidence the vehicles shown in the photo were destroyed by people resisting Israel’s military action.

The IDF included the photo in a Nov. 13 news release about the ongoing ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

It said the photo of the vehicles, and others included in the update, showed "continuing operations in the Gaza Strip." There is no reference to tanks being damaged in the release.

Additionally, none of the various news reports that published the photo describe the vehicles as “destroyed.”

An ABC News caption of the image reads, "Israeli military vehicles maneuver during the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip as seen in a handout picture released by the Israel Defense Forces on Nov. 13, 2023." Reuters echoed that in its captions of the image, which is included in an article and a photo gallery on the ground operation in Gaza.

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The armored vehicles in the image don't appear to be destroyed, said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

"None of them have lost their tracks or turrets, the classic signs of destroyed armored vehicles," said Cancian, who served multiple combat tours with the Marines Corps. "None of them show scorch marks that would be exhibited in burned-out vehicles. Armored vehicles frequently burn when struck."

David Silbey, a military history professor at Cornell University, said he also doesn't see any indication in the image that the armored vehicles are destroyed.

"They don’t seem to be on fire or smoking severely, which would be the case if they had been destroyed by a missile," he said. "The hatches and doors are closed – they would be open if the crew had time to escape the damage. The armor seems to be intact, and there isn’t much in the way of debris around the vehicles that might have come off them."

The treads of the vehicles appear to be intact, Silbey said, and the screens on top, which detonate ordinance coming from above, seem to be mostly intact.

Israeli tanks are deployed on the border with Gaza in southern Israel on Nov. 5, 2023,
Israeli tanks are deployed on the border with Gaza in southern Israel on Nov. 5, 2023,

USA TODAY has debunked an array of claims about images stemming from the Israel-Hamas war, including that an image shows American soldiers praying before deployment to Israel, an implication that an image shows a reporter injured by Israeli forces in 2023 and that the Las Vegas Sphere displayed the Israeli flag.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Image shows Israeli tanks moving through Gaza City | Fact check