Fact Check: Did Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah cry after Israeli strikes on Lebanon? This clip is OLD

India Today Fact Check found that the viral video has nothing to do with Israel's recent strikes on Lebonan. The Nasrallah video is more than two years old. 

India Today Fact Check

Claim
This video shows Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah crying after the recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Fact
The viral video has nothing to do with Israel’s recent strikes on Lebonan. Nasrallah’s video is more than two years old. 

After the pager and walkie-talkie blasts, Lebanon was hit by Israeli air strikes on September 23, killing over 500 people so far. The attacks reportedly killed Ibrahim Muhammad Qabisi, a top commander of the paramilitary group and political party Hezbollah.

Now, a video of Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah sobbing is making the rounds on social media. Allegedly, he cried after losing his commanders in these Israeli attacks.

An X user captioned the video: “Hezbollah terrorist commander Nasrallah was laughing on 7th October when innocent Israelis were been murdered by Hamas Terrorist. Today, he is crying after losing 100s of his commanders to pager blasts. Even his own life is in danger”. Its archive can be seen here.

India Today Fact Check found that the viral video has nothing to do with Israel’s recent strikes on Lebanon. The Nasrallah video is more than two years old.

Our Probe

A reverse image search of keyframes from the video led us to a Facebook post from August 12, 2022, containing the same video. This proves the video has nothing to do with the ongoing escalation between Israel and Lebanon.

A longer version of the video was also shared by several YouTube Channels on August 12, 2022. Their Arabic titles suggested Nasrallah cried while commemorating the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad. The first frame of the YouTube video also features words like “Ashura” and “Hussein”. Also, in the video, “Muharram” and “Hussein” can be seen written behind Nasrallah.

There are reports from August 9, 2022, saying that Nasrallah addressed mourners commemorating Ashura in a televised speech. Ashura marks the martyrdom of Imam Hussein.

There are also reports from 2009 and 2018 about how Nasrallah cried while delivering speeches during annual Ashura ceremonies.

Hence, it’s clear that an old video of the Hezbollah chief was falsely linked to recent attacks on Lebanon.