Fact Check

Does Video Show Vaxxed Heads Exploding Due to 5G in Israel?

A gruesome video of protesters being killed with "non-lethal" weapons was repurposed to spread 5G conspiracy theories.

Published Jan. 4, 2022

Claim:
A video shows vaccinated people's heads exploding after Israel turned on its 5G network.
Context

This video features genuine footage from 2019 of protesters who were fatally shot at close range with "non-lethal" gas canisters in Iraq.

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In January 2022, a video was circulated on platforms such as Telegram, Gettr, and Bitchute that supposedly showed the heads of people in Israel who had been vaccinated for COVID-19 exploding after the country switched on their 5G network.

As this video is real (albeit it has nothing to do with COVID-19 vaccines or 5G) and features genuine images of people dying, we won't show it here. But here's a screenshot of one social media post for reference:

This video is unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also has nothing to do with 5G cellular networks. This video cobbles together footage from 2019 of protesters in Iraq (not Israel) who were killed after being shot with "non-lethal" gas canisters.

In October 2019, when these protesters were killed after being shot at point blank range with gas canisters, Lynn Maalouf, Middle East Research Director at Amnesty International, said:

"All the evidence points to Iraqi security forces deploying these military-grade grenades against protesters in Baghdad, apparently aiming for their heads or bodies at point-blank range. This has had devastating results, in multiple cases piercing the victims’ skulls, resulting in gruesome wounds and death after the grenades embed inside their heads."

Here's a news report about these protests from NBC News. The man in the red and grey shirt from the above-displayed screenshot of the Parler post about "vaxxed peoples heads exploding" due to 5G can be seen at the 2:07 mark of the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RAQ48HPSQw

This viral video does not show "vaxxed peoples heads exploding" due to 5G. In reality, someone cut together footage of people being fatally shot at close range with gas canisters and then miscaptioned the video with a ludicrous claims about COVID-19 vaccines and 5G network. This gruesome rumor is just the latest evolution in the conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 vaccines contain some sort of microchip and that 5G internet (which has been slowly rolling out since 2016) causes serious health complications.

Sources

Broad, William J. “The 5G Health Hazard That Isn’t.” The New York Times, 16 July 2019. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/science/5g-cellphones-wireless-cancer.html.

“Iraqi Protesters Are Being Killed By ‘Less Lethal’ Tear-Gas Rounds.” Bellingcat, 12 Nov. 2019, https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2019/11/12/iraqi-protesters-are-being-killed-by-less-lethal-tear-gas-rounds/.

“Some of the Tear Gas Grenades Used to Disperse Iraqi Protesters Were Manufactured in Iran.” Amnesty International, 31 Oct. 2019, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/10/iraq-gruesome-string-of-fatalities-as-new-tear-gas-grenades-pierce-protesters-skulls/.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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