Protest by US military veterans misrepresented amid Gaza war
- Published on October 6, 2025 at 04:31
- 3 min read
- By Anne CHAN, AFP Hong Kong
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"Two US army pilots were arrested for refusing to transport arms to Israel," reads the simplified Chinese caption of a video shared on Facebook on September 22, 2025.
The clip, which has been viewed more than 19,000 times, shows a man and woman in uniform escorted out of a room before being handcuffed against a wall.
"The Israeli terrorists are committing genocide, and the US Congress and the Senate are complicit in funding the bombs that are forcing children to be slaughtered and massacred," the woman can be heard shouting.
Chinese sticker text on the video repeats the claim, adding the pair were detained after being summoned to the Pentagon.
The video was shared elsewhere on Facebook and on TikTok, Weibo, YouTube and X.
The false posts gained traction after the Trump administration announced on September 20 that it plans to sell nearly US$6 billion in weapons to Israel, amid its ground offensive in Gaza triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack (archived link).
The attack on Israel killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 67,074 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory, which the United Nations considers reliable.
Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages during their October 7 attack, 47 of whom are still in Gaza. Of those, the Israeli military says 25 are dead.
Trump released a roadmap on September 30 to end the fighting and release captives in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, though the details still need to be ironed out (archived link). Delegations from Hamas, Israel and the United States are due to convene in Egypt for talks on October 6.
But the circulating video does not depict two pilots being arrested for protesting against the delivery of arms to Israel.
Not army pilots
A reverse image search led to a YouTube video posted on September 9, 2025 titled: "Ret. military officers arrested on Capitol Hill accused lawmakers of complicity in the Gaza genocide."
The video caption claims the two individuals are a former Army intelligence officer and a retired Green Beret lieutenant colonel arrested for disrupting a Senate hearing.
A subsequent Google keyword search led to reports by Manhattan-based Democracy Now!, Turkish public broadcaster TRT World and Qatar's Al Jazeera that two US veterans -- Josephine Guilbeau and Anthony Aguilar -- were escorted from the Senate hearing on September 3 after interrupting the proceedings (archived here, here and here).
Aguilar, who used to work as a security subcontractor for the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has spoken up about alleged "war crimes" he witnessed (archived link). Guilbeau, meanwhile, has posted multiple videos of her speaking at pro-Palestine rallies on her Instagram account (archived here and here).
Upon closer inspection, a sign in the video reads: "Committee on Foreign Relations Hearing Room 419."
The Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the US Senate -- not the Pentagon as claimed in the false post -- and is responsible for leading foreign policy legislation and debates (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation related to Israel-Palestinian conflict.
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