Footage shows boat parade in Turkey, not activists sailing towards Gaza
- Published on October 4, 2025 at 10:57
- Updated on October 4, 2025 at 13:03
- 2 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
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"More than 50 boats with activists from 44 nations are sailing together toward Gaza. This is the largest civilian flotilla in modern history, a united effort to challenge the illegal siege and bring hope to the Palestinian people. #GlobalSumudFlotilla," reads an Instagram post shared on September 28, 2025.
The clip, which has been viewed more than 21 million times, shows a large group of boats at sea.
The activists -- including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg -- set sail from Barcelona on August 31 on the Global Sumud Flotilla towards Gaza, where the United Nations says a famine was taking hold (archived link).
Israel's military said on October 3 that the navy had stopped all 42 of the fleet's vessels, and its police said "more than 470 flotilla participants were taken into custody by the military police".
The flotilla said that its vessels had been "illegally intercepted" and their passengers "unlawfully abducted".
The video was shared with similar claims on X, but it does not show the flotilla.
A Google reverse image search using keyframes led to a TikTok video showing the same scene published on May 26 with hashtags including "Istanbul" and "Galatasaray" (archived link).
It was shared a day after fans from the Galatasaray football club staged a large-scale boat parade setting off from Sarayburnu across the Bosphorus to celebrate their team's victory in the Turkish Super Lig, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported (archived link).
It also shows the same flag pole and tree line as those on the Sarayburnu peninsula seen on Google Maps Street View (archived link).
The club's official X account also posted clips of the celebration, showing boats flying the club's red and yellow flag -- the same banner seen in the false video (archived here and here).
AFP has debunked other false claims related to the war in Gaza.
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