Video shows festival goers in France, not Israeli citizens fleeing Iranian attacks

"Poor Israel, their people are also evacuating," reads the Tagalog-language caption of a Facebook reel shared on June 22, 2025.

The clip shows hordes of people with large bags and dragging trolleys trudging across fields and along a dirt track.

It was shared as foreigners rushed to leave Iran and Israel, after an unprecedented Israeli bombing campaign targeting Tehran's nuclear and military facilities on June 13 sparked retaliation from its arch foe (archived link).

The two sides traded devastating strikes for 12 days before a US-proposed ceasefire brought an end to the conflict which killed more than 600 people in Iran and 28 in Israel (archived link).

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken on June 26, 2025, with the red X mark added by AFP

The same clip also circulated in similar Facebook and X posts.

But it does not show Israeli citizens fleeing the country.

French music festival

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage posted on TikTok on June 19 with overlaid French-language text that reads, "Hellfest campsite opened yesterday" (archived link).

Ticket holders for the annual heavy metal festival Hellfest -- held in the western French town of Clisson -- can stay at its official campsite for free (archived link). 

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Screenshot comparison of the false Facebook post (left) and the TikTok video (right)

The TikTok user also posted another video of the campsite on June 23 (archived link).

A subsequent keyword search led to a similar video posted on YouTube by French web channel TV Sèvre et Maine on June 20 (archived link).

A red and black sign that towers over festival goers and tents can be seen in both the falsely shared clip and the YouTube video.

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the YouTube clip (right), with the corresponding red and black sign highlighted by AFP

Moreover, a row of white tents that festival goers are shown walking by corresponds with a geotagged photo of the campsite in 2023 available on Google Maps (archived link). 

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and a 2023 Google Maps photo (right), with matching white tents highlighted by AFP

Google Earth satellite imagery taken in June 2018 also shows the annual festival's sprawling campgrounds (archived link).

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Satellite imagery showing the Hellfest camp grounds in June 2018, available from Google Earth

AFP has debunked other false claims misrepresenting unrelated footage as if it were related to the Iran-Israel conflict here.