Video shows caterpillar fungus harvest, not people displaced by Middle East war
- Published on March 16, 2026 at 10:34
- Updated on March 16, 2026 at 10:40
- 2 min read
- By AFP Thailand
At least a dozen people have been killed by Iran's retaliatory strikes on Israel since a joint attack with the United States in February killed the Islamic republic's supreme leader, but footage shared online of a crowd running across a hillside does not show Israelis fleeing the conflict. The video shows people on an annual search for a caterpillar fungus in the Himalayas and was taken in May 2025.
"125 Israelis have died from Iran's retaliatory strikes on Israel. Now Israelis are fleeing through the mountains for safety," reads the Burmese-language caption of a Facebook reel shared on March 10, 2025.
The video features sticker text repeating the claim and shows large crowds running across a steep hillside.
The same clip circulated alongside a similarclaim across social media as Iran repeatedly fired missiles towards Israel as the war in the Middle East entered its third week, triggered by a joint US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, 2026 (archived link).
Iran's health ministry said on March 8 that more than 1,200 people had been killed -- a number AFP is unable to independently verify -- while Israeli authorities reported 14 people died from missile strikes or falling debris since the start of the war (archived link).
However, the video predates the Iran war, and AFP has previously debunked posts sharing the same clip during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in 2025.
A combination of reverse image and keyword searches found the original video published by a Facebook page called Dolpa on May 29, 2025 (archived link).
The Nepali-language post reads: "people collecting yarchagumba, Rup patan, Dolpa District." A man can also be heard in the video saying "it is open" in Nepali.
Yarchagumba, also known as the Chinese Caterpillar Fungus and nicknamed "Himalayan viagra", is one of the most valued traditional Chinese medicines and can fetch up to three times the price of gold in China (archived link).
The fungus is classified as vulnerable in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List (archived link).
Every year between May and June, thousands of villagers in Nepal and Tibet scale the Himalayan foothills to collect the parasitic fungus, which grows on the body of a caterpillar (archived link).
The user who originally shared the video, Pradip Shahi, told AFP on March 11, 2026 the footage was filmed during the annual harvest on May 27, 2025.
He also provided AFP with the location of the harvest in Nepal (archived link).
AFP has debunked a wave of misinformation related to the war in Iran.
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