After Israel carried out air strikes on military targets across Iran on October 26, footage circulated in social media posts around the world that falsely claimed it showed Israeli jets returning from the mission. The clip was in fact filmed in Egypt more than three weeks before the strikes.
“#Israeli fighter jets are returning from #Iran after destroying its several air defense systems and military bases,” read a Thai-language X post that shared the video on October 27.
The previous day, Israel launched strikes on military sites in Iran, risking further regional escalation more than a year into the Gaza war and a month into the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon (archived link).
The Israeli raid was in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on October 1, itself retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
The video, which shows aircraft flying in formation, made the rounds on social media around the world, including in Arabic, Indonesian and English.
Former US ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman also shared the false claim on his X account.
Egypt military parade
A reverse image search of the video on Google found it was previously posted on TikTok on October 3 — more than three weeks before Israel’s strikes on Iran (archived link).
The video’s Arabic-language caption translates as: “Egyptian army.”
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in false posts (left) and the earlier TikTok video (right):
The TikTok user who posted the video told AFP he filmed it in Al Shourouk, east of the Egyptian capital Cairo, during a military academy graduation ceremony on October 3.
According to Egypt’s State Information Service, the Egyptian Military Academy in Cairo held a graduation ceremony that day (archived link).
“The ceremony included impressive aerial displays, with helicopters carrying the Egyptian flag and military emblems, and a formation of 19 aircraft representing the 118th graduating class,” it said on its website.
Arabic-speaking AFP journalists confirmed a man heard off-camera in the video was speaking an Egyptian dialect of Arabic, and said: “God bless” as the planes flew by.
A man — possibly the same person — is also heard saying “the eagles of the sky” in the same dialect.
Moreover, an Egyptian car license plate is visible in the video, corresponding to those commonly used in the North African country, as shown in the website WorldLicensePlates.com (archived link).
There have been no official reports Israeli forces used Egyptian airspace after launching air strikes against Iran.
Iran’s neighbour Iraq condemned Israel’s use of its airspace in the attack in a protest letter sent to United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council, Baghdad said (archived link).
AFP has repeatedly debunked misinformation related to the conflict in the Middle East.
