Photo: Screenshot from the video
The video clip shared on this Facebook post is not from 2023, but more than two years old. As Reuters’ fact-checkers specify, the video with the Egyptian aid convoy is from May 2021, not from 2023, writes Truthmeter.mk.
Under the content-sharing agreement between Truthmeter.mk and Meta.mk, we republish the text below:
We are fact-checking a post on the social network Facebook (screenshot here) from 16th October sharing a video and saying the following:
Egyptian vehicles with humanitarian aid are waiting outside Rafah border-crossing, next to the Gaza Strip.
The video shows a convoy of ambulance vehicles as well as large trucks (trailers) lined up waiting at the Rafah border crossing which is located on the border between Egypt and Gaza.
The post – along with this Facebook video – was posted on 16th October 2023, when Reuters reported that “Gaza aid is stuck as Egypt says Israel is not cooperating”.
Egypt said on Monday that Israel was not cooperating with the delivery of aid into Gaza and evacuations of foreign passport-holders via the only entry it does not wholly control, leaving hundreds of tonnes of supplies stuck. Cairo says the Rafah crossing, a potentially vital opening for the desperately needed supplies into the Israeli-besieged Palestinian enclave, is not officially closed but was made inoperable due to the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza side, Reuters reported.
However, the video shared in the post fact-checked is not from October 2023, but it is over two years old.
As Reuters’ fact-checkers specify, the video with the Egyptian aid convoy is from 2021.
Although the video shows an area near the Rafah border crossing, as confirmed by satellite imagery, the footage is not from 2023. Egypt’s Al Nahar channel shared the video on Facebook on 31st May 2021 for the first time. The Arabic description of the video says: “For the third time, Egypt is sending the longest convoy of aid and support to the Palestinians in Gaza”.
After the latest conflict (from 7th October 2023), hundreds of tons of aid from non-governmental organizations and several countries have been stuck in Egypt, reported Reuters on 16th October when Cairo said that due to the fact that the roads in Gaza are under constant bombardment, they were not operable.
On Monday, 16th October, Egypt announced that Israel was not cooperating with the delivery of aid to Gaza and the evacuation of foreign citizens.
Until now the Israeli government has not taken a position on opening the Rafah crossing from the Gaza side to allow the entrance of assistance and exit of citizens of third countries, Reuters reported.
US officials were hoping that Rafah would operate for a few hours late on Monday. White House spokesman John Kirby said that those hopes had been dashed.
The ongoing war made delivery of aid through Rafah very difficult, says the United Nations spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
“There will need to be a mechanism given that it implicates a lot of parties, some of which are not on speaking terms. We’re working on that with key partners,” he told reporters, according to Reuters.
Reuters reported that Hamas-affiliated radio station Aqsa said Israeli shelling hit Rafah crossing on Monday. The Egyptian side of the border appeared deserted on Monday afternoon, with aid supplies being stockpiled in the nearby city of Al Arish.
Due to all of the above-noted facts, this Facebook post is assessed as omitting context. The video is real, but it is not from 2023 from the recent situation that flared between Israel and Hamas, but from a situation dated 2021.
