As a barrage of information followed the Hamas attack on Israel and the latter’s retaliation, some unverified information also made headlines.

One such post came from an account on X (formerly Twitter) claiming to be affiliated with the Afghanistan government.

The account, named Taliban Public Relations Department, has over 47 thousand followers and also has a blue tick, or verification mark, which X allows to be purchased. However, the account is not followed by any authentic account belnonging to the Afghan government.

The account posted that it had asked permission from the governments of Iran, Iraq and Jordan to allow passage to the ‘holy land’ with an arrow on a map pointing towards occupied Palestinian territories.

The claim got picked up by the Jerusalem Post, who turned it into a new story.

However, the claim was debunked by many including Michael Kugleman, who said it was ‘likely fake news’ since Taliban have never staged operations outside Afghanistan