No, UN vehicles do not fly the Hezbollah flag.

David Williams

WHAT IS STATED

A UN patrol flew a Hezbollah flag in southern Lebanon.

OUR VERDICT

Misleading. The attackers affixed the flag after attacking the UN vehicle.

AAP FACT CHECK – A widely circulated photograph of a UN armored personnel carrier with a Hezbollah flag is being used to claim that UN agencies support terrorists.

This is misleading. The photo was taken after a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol was attacked in the south of the country in April while the vehicle was flying a flag.

The claim appears in Facebook posts depicting a white UN car with Hezbollah flag hanging near his back. “Here is a photo of a UNIFIL truck with a Hezbollah flag. Do all UN agencies help terrorists?” said in the post captions.

UNIFIL The 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 does not reflect what the Facebook posts claim.

This appears to be a screenshot (31 seconds) from video published on X 2 April 2024, following a reported attack on a UNIFIL patrol in the village of Baraachit in southern Lebanon.

The video was published by an Israeli journalist. Roy Case and an organization called Israel-Almawhich bills itself as a non-profit research and education center specializing in “Israel’s security issues on its northern border.”

IN Posted April 2nd on XIsrael-Alma reported that the UNIFIL patrol was attacked after it entered the village during Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacks on Hezbollah targets.

The Israel-Alma report said the Lebanese army rescued the patrol and the attackers hung a Hezbollah flag on the vehicle and slashed its tires.

Reports of the incident, including the assailants hanging a flag, have been denied Open, D-GRAK And observers. The punctured tires seen in Video X were also cropped from the image posted on Facebook.

The full X-video shows two UN armored vehicles. The first car has registration number 14882, which is visible above the front right window (0:04), and the second car has registration number 14883, which is visible from the rear (0:22).

The car in the Facebook images is the first one.

In the video, he has a white blanket over his left window, a black bag hanging below the window, a black belt hanging over the wheel arch, and slashed tires (0:12).

There is also a dark spot 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 moving car clip, but can be seen in the freeze frame (0:31) in the full X-video. It is unclear when the flag was attached to the UN vehicle.