Video of humanitarian aid airdropped in Gaza turns out to be fake
Video of humanitarian aid airdropped in Gaza turns out to be fake
(Web Desk) - A video from April 2024 showing humanitarian aid airdropped near a Gaza beach has been miscaptioned in online posts as footage of China delivering aid to Gaza in May amid an Israeli blockade that began in March.
The video, filmed from a car and showing people scrambling as aid packages attached to parachutes land on the ground, was posted on social media on May 17 with the caption: “This is not Saudi Arabia’s 600 Billion This is not Qatar’s 1.2 Trillion This is not UAE’s 1.4 Trillion This is china dropping air aids in Gaza today. What a shame for Arabia world.”
However, the video was initially posted on TikTok on September 15, 2024. Ahmed Hassan, a Gaza resident who posted the video on TikTok, told Reuters via direct message that it was filmed on April 28, 2024, on Al-Bahr Street in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
US Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop in northern Gaza on April 28, 2024, according to a press release on the US Central Command’s website.
The location in the video also matches footage obtained by Reuters that showed people running towards the beach to collect aid dropped by planes on March 26, 2024, in Beit Lahia, which is adjacent to Jabalia.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the government media office in the Gaza Strip, told Reuters on May 19 that the People's Republic of China has not sent any humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip through any relief airlifts and that China was not among the countries that participated in aerial delivery operations for aid.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in a May 17 X post that humanitarian aid and supplies did not enter the Gaza Strip for over 10 weeks, since the Israeli authorities imposed a siege on March 2.
A spokesperson for UNRWA said in a May 20 email to Reuters that no aid or commercial supplies entered Gaza between March 2 and May 19 through land, sea or air.
On May 19, Israel cleared nine trucks of goods to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing and approved about 100 more emergency aid trucks the next day.
The spokesperson’s office for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a May 20 in a text message that it was unaware of video showing airdropped packages. “China has cooperated with Egypt, Jordan and other parties to provide multiple batches of humanitarian supplies to Gaza. As a responsible major country, we will continue to work tirelessly with the international community to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and achieve peace and stability in the Middle East.”
China’s Ministry of National Defence did not respond to a request for comment.
