No, UN vehicles aren’t flying the flag for Hezbollah
David Williams
October 21, 2024
WHAT WAS CLAIMED
A UN patrol displayed the Hezbollah flag in southern Lebanon.
OUR VERDICT
Misleading. Assailants attached the flag after the UN vehicle was attacked.
AAP FACTCHECK – A widely circulated photo of a UN armoured personnel carrier bearing a Hezbollah flag is being used to claim UN agencies are supporting terrorists.
This is misleading. The photo was taken after the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol was attacked in the country’s south in April, when the flag was placed on the vehicle.
The claim appears in Facebook posts featuring an image of a white UN vehicle with a Hezbollah flag hanging near its rear.
“Here is a photo of an UNIFIL truck with a Hezbollah flag on it. Are all UN agencies helping terrorists?” the post captions said.
The UNIFIL peacekeeping force first entered Lebanon in March 1978 with a mandate to maintain order and security along the border between Lebanon and Israel.
The image doesn’t depict what’s being claimed in the Facebook posts.
It appears to be a screengrab (31 seconds) from a video posted on X on April 2, 2024, after a reported attack on a UNIFIL patrol in the village of Baraachit, southern Lebanon.
The video was shared by Israeli journalist Roi Kais and by an organisation called Israel-Alma, which describes itself as a non-profit research and education centre specialised in “Israel’s security challenges on its northern border”.
In an April 2 post on X, Israel-Alma said the UNIFIL patrol was attacked after it entered the village during a day of Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacks on Hezbollah targets.
Israel-Alma’s post said the Lebanese army rescued the patrol, and the attackers had hung a Hezbollah flag on the vehicle and punctured its tyres.
The incident was reported, including the flag being hung by the attackers, in debunks by Open, D-FRAC and Observers.
The punctured tyres seen in the X video have also been cropped out of the image posted on Facebook.
The full X video shows two UN armoured vehicles. The first vehicle has the registration number 14882, seen above the front right window (0:04), while the second vehicle has the registration number 14883, seen on its rear (0:22).
The vehicle in the Facebook images is the first one.
In the video, it has a white covering over its left window, a black bag hanging beneath the window, a black strap hanging just over the wheel arch and punctured tyres (0:12).
It also has a dark stain between the wheel arch and the door.
The details match the image used in the Facebook posts.
The Hezbollah flag was not visible in the clip of the vehicle in motion, but it can be seen in a still frame (0:31) in the full X video.
It’s unclear when the flag was attached to the UN vehicle. (AAP)
