An October 2023 clip by Fox News showed a staged scene in which an actor played a Hamas militant being captured by Israeli army soldiers.
While the in-question video is authentic — that is, it was not the result of digital editing and it indeed aired on Fox News — there is no evidence that the encounter was staged. We reached out to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Fox News to get more details about the incident, and we will update this post when, or if, irrefutable evidence to deny or confirm the claim surfaces.
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In late November 2023, footage captured by Fox News allegedly showing the capture and stripping of a Hamas fighter by Israeli military forces faced accusations by numerous pro-Palestinian voices on social media that it was staged.
The footage in question shows Fox News reporter Trey Yingst following Israeli soldiers as they fire weapons and allegedly capture a man — someone who, according to Fox News, was a Hamas fighter. Taken in the days following the Hamas attack on Israel’s Tribe of Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, the video seemingly showed Israeli soldiers escorting the man after blindfolding him and stripping him of his clothing. At the very end of the clip, the soldiers can be seen gesturing in the direction of the camera, appearing to tell the journalists to move away, while the man, surrounded by Israeli soldiers, puts on his pants.
It was that moment (when the man put on his pants) to which believers of the claim pointed. Under the pretenses of their theory, the recorded footage wasn’t a real depiction of events — rather, it involved actors, soldiers and journalists with heavily edited footage — to try to mislead audiences into thinking the Israel army efficiently captured a Hamas fighter when they had not.
One post on X claimed, “A Fox Channel reporter caught Israeli soldiers “arresting” a supposed Palestinian terrorist, even stripping him. The camera cut when the guy stood up on his own and put his clothes back on – turns out it was staged.” The end of the clip shared on X paused the original footage by Fox News and replayed it to highlight the alleged staging.
While the in-question video is authentic — that is, it was not the result of digital editing and it indeed aired on Fox News — there is no evidence that the encounter was staged. We reached out to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Fox News for more information about the incident and the man, and we will update this post when, or if, irrefutable evidence to deny or confirm the claim surfaces. We requested unedited footage of the incident captured by Fox News. As such, we rated this claim “Unproven.”
We also asked the IDF for more information about the man, and the reasoning behind him getting dressed again.
Snopes accessed the footage aired by Fox News via archived clips and Mediaite. After Fox News broadcasted it on Oct. 12, 2023, the clip was shown by Sky News Australia.
However, the footage that aired on Fox News (and other media outlets after that) had been edited. Without access to the unedited footage from Fox News, we have no way to independently confirm that such an interaction was staged. It is possible that the apprehended man was indeed a Hamas fighter who was stripped and searched by the Israeli soldiers, and, before being led away, allowed to put on pants. It is also possible that the situation was staged by Israeli soldiers for reporters, and Fox News may have captured a slip up. Regardless, because we have no information on the man, nor responses from Fox News and the IDF, we’re unable to definitively conclude the circumstances under which his blindfold was removed and he got dressed — that is, whether it was part of a “staged” scene or authentic capture. In the brief moment the camera catches him standing without a blindfold and putting on his pants, he remains surrounded by soldiers.
Before introducing the footage in question on Fox News, Yingst said, “We saw where authorities were collecting burned body parts underneath a bus. Also in the distance you could see where campsites were set up, and as we were walking through this area, it was very clear something went terribly wrong, and I want you to take a look.”
The footage then shows Yingst running toward the chaos. “We just heard a gunshot and they’re yelling at people to get out of the area […] You can see these soldiers — Get down, get down! Lay down flat! Lay down. Lay down totally flat,” he says to his camera crew as they all lie on the ground and while gunshots can be heard in the background.
The footage cuts to soldiers running, Yingst describing the two gunshots, and an Israeli soldier telling to Yingst, “Go back right now.” The footage cuts and shows the soldiers leading a blindfolded man stripped down to his underwear.
“Very tense right now as the soldiers appear to be arresting a Palestinian man. They have him in handcuffs right now, and they’ve blindfolded him, and they are taking him away. You can see here, they’re leading him away. They’ve blindfolded this man, and it appears they have captured yet another militant who entered from the Gaza Strip, and it gives you a sense of how unpredictable all of this is. They don’t know where people are hiding. And they could still be in the tree lines here near to the Gaza border,” Yingst said.
He also said he spoke to an Israeli military commander who claimed the captured man was a Palestinian militant who either crossed the border from Gaza or had been hiding in the area since the Oct. 7 attack on the Tribe of Nova music festival.
Media access to some sites under attacks by Hamas was initially under the survellience of the Israeli military. While we cannot confirm nor deny whether the above incident was staged, journalists should remain skeptical of situations presented to them and information provided by the Israeli military due to the institution’s documented history of false claims, propaganda, and disinformation. We have covered some of that disinformation here at Snopes.