Posts about PNG sending troops to Israel misuse old footage

"PNG is in the 7 allied force joining the Israelites," reads a caption of a video shared June 29, 2025 by a Facebook user in Papua New Guinea.

It includes a video of soldiers emblazoned with the logo of news organisation "7News" at the bottom right corner.

Image

Screenshot of the false post, taken on July 24 with a red X added by AFP

The post, which includes the hashtags "#iranisraelconflict" and "#warzone", has been viewed over 130,000 times and shared more than 500 times. It also circulated on TikTok.

Israel launched an unprecedented surprise bombing campaign against Iran on June 13, prompting Tehran to respond with drone and missile attacks. A ceasefire between the long-time foes has been in effect since June 24 (archived link). 

While some Facebook users expressed scepticism over the video, a few appeared to believe the false claim.

One user criticised the supposed move as "inviting disaster to a country with no superpower at all". Another said they could "smell WW3... just around the corner".

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape has said his country "continues to stand with Israel" when asked about the conflict with Iran in late June (archived link).

But posts about troop deployment to the Middle East are false, according to Defence Minister Billy Joseph (archived link).

"It's fake news," Joseph told AFP in a text message sent on July 23.

He added that the military exercise shown in the circulating video was "not done in preparation for deployment to any conflict region like in the Middle East, Europe or elsewhere". 

A keyword search found the original 7News report published May 19, 2025, four weeks before the Iran-Israel war erupted (archived link).

The report was about a month-long military exercise called the North Queensland Warfighter (archived link).

Image

Screenshot comparison between false post (L) and 7News report

The war games -- which included troops from Papua New Guinea, Japan, Malaysia and the United States -- were also featured on the Australian Army's official YouTube page (archived link).

The Israeli army did not take part in the exercises, Australia's Department of Defence told AFP.

The Australian Associated Press has earlier debunked similar posts (archived link).

AFP has fact-checked other false claims related to the Iran-Israel war here.