Paraglider death footage from South Korea, not Israel

Published on October 16, 2023 at 20:09
3 min read
By AFP USA

Hamas fighters used motorized gliders in their October 2023 assault on Israel, triggering a bloody war that has resulted in thousands dead and some 199 hostages. But a clip shared online does not show a Palestinian paraglider's accidental death during the attack; it was taken in June in South Korea.

"Hamas paraglider crashes into high-voltage electric power line and bursts into flames. Did he deserve this... YES or NO?" says an October 12, 2023 post sharing the video on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The footage shows a paraglider colliding with an electric pole followed by an explosion.

Screenshot of an X post taken October 13, 2023

The clip circulated in the same context on Reddit, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube days after the deadliest assault in Israeli history.

Hamas fighters killed more than 1,400 people in the October 7 attack, mostly civilians. The Israeli military has said the militant group also took scores of hostages, including foreigners.

Israel responded with air strikes that have flattened entire neighborhoods and killed at least 2,750 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly ordinary Palestinians. The country has requested some 1.1 million Gazans -- nearly half the population -- to leave the north of the densely populated, impoverished enclave in anticipation of a ground offensive against Hamas.

While the militant group did use motorized gliders in its initial assault on Israel, the clip shared online does not show them.

A reverse image search surfaced several June 2023 South Korean media reports with the footage (archived here and here).

"An accident occurred in Jeju Island where a tourist in his 60s died after getting caught in a high-voltage wire while paragliding," says a June 17 article from Kukmin Ilbo, a daily newspaper in Seoul, according to Google Translate.

The reports say the accident occurred near Seopjikoji Beach on the island of Jeju.

AFP compared visual clues in the video and published photos to geolocate the exact location where it happened (archived here).

Screenshot of a video taken October 13, 2023 from the South Korean blog Bobaedream, with elements highlighted by AFP

Screenshot taken October 13, 2023 from Google Maps, with elements highlighted by AFP

Screenshot of a photo taken October 13, 2023 from South Korean web portal Daum, with elements highlighted by AFP

Screenshot taken October 13, 2023 from Google Maps, with elements highlighted by AFP

AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict here.

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