Posts about Gazans migrating to Sweden misuse football squad footage

"A Swedish NGO is taking people from Gaza to Sweden. They will be settled in Sweden. The interesting thing is that there is no girl from Gaza in the plane," reads an X post on July 15, 2025. 

"Swedes should think that to whom will these young men marry? It is obvious that these people will convert Swedish Christian girls and marry them. Sweden is already struggling with Islamic riots but Still the Swedes are not coming to their senses."

It shares a video showing a group of youngsters wearing shirts bearing the colours of the Palestinian flag in a plane.

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Screenshot of the false X post taken July 18, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,029 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory (archived link).

The armed group's 2023 attack, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Youth football team

The Swedish Migration Agency told AFP they could not confirm whether the video shows migrants being relocated to the country, but said a person cannot apply for protection outside Sweden. 

"It is not possible to apply for asylum before arriving in Sweden. You must be in Sweden or at the Swedish border," an agency spokesperson said on July 29. "Then it is the Swedish Migration Agency that examines the application and either grants protection or rejects it."

The video was shared with similar claims on Facebook and X, but in fact shows a West Bank team flying to Sweden for football matches.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the clip found Rawahel Charity -- a Palestinian sports association -- shared the clip on TikTok on July 11, 2025 (archived link). 

The Arabic-language caption reads, "To Sweden". 

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Screenshot comparison of the false post video (L) and the TikTok video

The Rawahel Charity has told AFP they were travelling only for football before going home.

"We are a football team from Tulkarm in the West Bank. We were invited to participate first in a training camp in Paris, then in the world's largest children's football tournament, Gothia Cup in Sweden. We will then travel to Denmark to participate in the Dana Cup and then to Oslo to participate in the Norway Cup," a spokesperson for the group said on July 18, 2025. 

"We're not new to these tournaments; we were invited back after reaching the advanced stages last summer without any issues, and then we all returned to Palestine." 

Their trip can be seen on their social media pages and official websites of the games' organisers, including a Facebook picture posted on July 9 showing players in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (archived link).

Mohamed Moulay, a regional councillor in Centre-Val de Loire in northern France, uploaded a picture with the team while they were in the country (archived here and here).

They then travelled to Sweden for Gothia Cup, winning all their games in the group stage but were beaten in the knockout stage, according to the organiser's website (archived here and here).

The squad moved on to Denmark for the Dana Cup. They advanced to the semi-finals before they were knocked out by the Minerva Academy, which posted a picture of the game with the Palestinian side (archived here and here).

The team went on to compete in the Norway Cup, where the team was again beaten by the Minerva Academy in the knockout stage (archived link).

The organiser also uploaded a clip showing the team's arrival in Norway (archived link).

The team posted a picture on their Instagram account on August 3 showing them leaving Europe after finishing the games (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked misinformation about the Israel-Gaza war here. 

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