Fact check: Did Israel name its fighter jet after Kerala woman who died in attack?

Team Udayavani, May 20, 2021, 6:37 PM IST

Source: Alt News

Soumya who was working as a caregiver in Ashkelon, near the Gaza strip was killed by Hamas rockets. On May 15, the mortal remains of the Kerala woman Soumya Santhosh arrived from Israel to New Delhi.

Meanwhile, several Twitter and Facebook users have shared an image of a fighter jet with ‘Soumya’ written on the side.

The posts claimed that Israel has named its fighter jet ‘Soumya’ to avenge her death by conducting an airstrike on the Palestinian army chief’s residence.

In a Facebook group dedicated to Sudhir Chaudhary, editor-in-chief of Zee News, Facebook user Manoj Pareek posted the claim. It gained more than 12K likes.

The claim was further amplified by Godman Yogi Devnath on Twitter and his post gained over 800 retweets.

According to Alt News, who performed a reverse image search on Google, they found that the fighter jet is Chengdu J-10, manufactured by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) for People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), China.

The image was uploaded on the Chinese social media portal Tencent’s QQ last year.

It is important to note that the viral image is doctored because the original doesn’t say ‘Soumya’ on the side.

Source: Alt News

The image of Chengdu J-10 dates back to April 2020 and was morphed with the text ‘Soumya.’