Clip shows paragliders in Egypt, not Hamas militants attacking Israel
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 11, 2023 at 16:40
- Updated on October 12, 2023 at 15:34
- 3 min read
- By Daniel FUNKE, Ede ZABORSZKY, AFP USA, AFP Hungary
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"Imagine attending a rave. Then Hamas parachutes in," says text over a clip shared October 8, 2023 to TikTok and Instagram.
The video shows paragliders descending over a city at dawn or dusk as onlookers film them on their phones. Other posts with the footage circulated in Hungarian and Korean.
In its initial assault, Hamas unleashed a massive rocket barrage and sent fighters by air, land and sea to gun down civilians and take more than 100 hostages, including Americans and other foreigners. Israel officially declared war the following day, and its army later said it struck hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad sites in the Gaza Strip. The conflict had killed thousands by October 11.
Hamas has released clips of militants using motorized gliders to fly into Israel, storm military bases and shoot civilians at a music festival in the desert. But the video shared online is not one of them.
A reverse image search revealed a matching YouTube video (archived here) uploaded September 29, 2023 with the Arabic title "Parachute forces in Heliopolis."
A district of Cairo, Heliopolis is home to the El Nasr football club. One person in the footage is wearing clothing that says "EL NASR SC."
AFP geolocated the video shared online to the football club's location in Cairo (archived here).
A keyword search for El Nasr surfaced a video tour of the football club on YouTube (archived here). Many details in the footage match those in the clip being misrepresented online, including a red cafe and blue chairs.
Using the video tour, AFP determined the exact location where the recording shared online was taken. Both clips show fencing and a large square object that appears to be a digital screen.
AFP previously debunked Arabic posts claiming another video showed paragliders tied to the Hamas attacks. The footage was recorded in front of a military academy near the Cairo football field and features similar weather and lightning, suggesting the two clips depict the same event.
The Israel-Hamas conflict has led to a torrent of misinformation on social media, including many misrepresented photos and videos. More of AFP's reporting is available here.
October 12, 2023 This article was updated to replace "Palestine" with "Hamas" in the final paragraph.
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