What was claimed
The Washington Post reported that weapon supplies from Ukraine to Hamas have tripled over the past month.
Our verdict
This is not a genuine Washington Post article. There’s no evidence Ukraine supplies weapons to Hamas.
Washington Post did not report that Ukraine supplies weapons to Hamas
28 November 2023
A screenshot is circulating online supposedly showing a Washington Post online article with the headline: “Weapons supplies from Ukraine to Hamas have tripled over the past month.” But this is not a genuine article.
The image, which has been shared across social media platforms, shows the Washington Post logo at the top. But there is no article on the publication’s website that matches this screenshot.
A spokesperson for the Washington Post confirmed to Full Fact that this is not a genuine article published by the outlet.
Another clue that the article is fake is that the supposed bylined journalist, ‘Chris Moltisanti’, is also the name of a character from the TV series The Sopranos. The Washington Post has said ‘Chris Moltisanti’ is not associated with the Post, and the only references to a “Christopher Moltisanti” on its website refer to the TV show.
Moreover, a photo of weapons shown as the featured image below the headline appears to come from a Russian Ministry of Defence video shared on YouTube by The Sun in 2022 with the caption “Russian forces ‘seize U.S-made weapons’ from Ukrainians”.
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No evidence Ukraine has supplied weapons to Hamas
The claim that Ukraine is directly supplying weapons to Hamas has been widely debunked.
Shai Feldman, a professor of Israeli politics and society at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, told Associated Press that he had “not seen any evidence” of Hamas claiming to receive weapons from Ukraine.
Investigative journalism group Bellingcat also denied last month claims that it had verified Ukrainian weapons sales to Hamas. Bellingcat said: “We’ve reached no such conclusions or made any such claims.” The intelligence unit of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said these were “fake allegations” in a Facebook post.
Similarly, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson reportedly called such claims “fabrications and lies” during an interview with Russia Today’s Arabic channel (RT Arabic).
Full Fact has seen several instances of misinformation about the Israel-Gaza conflict presented as though it comes from credible sources, such as satirical ‘Forbes’ front covers featuring Hamas leaders and a post from a fake IDF Facebook account.
You can find more of our work fact checking false and misleading claims relating to the Israel-Gaza conflict here.
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Image courtesy of Michael Fleischhacker |
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because this is not a genuine Washington Post article.