Between May 16 and 20, Georgian (1, 2) and Russian-language (1, 2, 3.) Facebook and Instagram accounts circulated videos claiming that in recent days, despite the Israeli blockade, China violated the airspace and delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza residents via airplanes using parachutes. One user’s post contains two such videos, of which one is a full video while another is composed of three different clips. The footage uploaded by another user combines three different videos. Notably, this video includes a caption claiming that no Arab country helped the Gaza Strip and that only China provided aid.
False information and video manipulations about China delivering aid to the Gaza Strip via parachutes are being spread on social media. In reality, many Arab countries have provided humanitarian assistance to Gaza residents. China has also sent humanitarian cargo to Palestinians several times, but it did not provide aid during the Israeli blockade. Most of the footage shown in the circulated videos was filmed in 2024 and depicts humanitarian efforts by other countries.
In recent weeks, videos showing various scenes of humanitarian aid being dropped from airplanes for Gaza residents have been actively spreading on social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, X, and especially TikTok. The overwhelming majority of these videos have captions or titles stating that the aid is being delivered by China. It is important to note that in March 2025, Israel imposed a full blockade on the Gaza Strip, which was only lifted 11 weeks later, on May 19. During this period, delivering humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population in Gaza was prohibited. Accordingly, along with the circulation of these videos on social media, a narrative is also spreading that China ignored Israel’s regulations and acted against its will.
According to information published by Deutsche Welle on May 20, there is no evidence supporting these claims. The article states that in recent times, China has not released any information about providing aid to Gaza residents. According to the official data from the Chinese government, the last time they sent aid to the Palestinians was on February 19, via trucks.
-
What Events Are Shown in the Circulated Videos?
Upon verifying the videos shared by Facebook accounts, it was determined that the majority of them depict events from 2024 and do not show any aid delivered by China to Gaza. One of the videos, which consists of three different clips, was fact-checked by the Arabic fact-checking organization Misbar, which confirmed that none of the video segments show humanitarian aid being dropped by China. In the first clip, which shows several airplanes, we are likely seeing Chinese military aircraft, but the video was filmed in Egypt during joint military exercises between the two countries held in April–May of this year.
 |
 |
| A frame from the circulated video. | A frame from a video posted by an Egyptian photographer. |
In the second part of the video, we see opened parachutes delivering cargo to the ground, as well as a man who first speaks to the camera and then runs toward the cargo. Using reverse image search techniques, we identified the man as Palestinian blogger Hasan Almallah, who posted this video on his Instagram page on October 19, 2024. According to a CNN article, on that very day, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) airdropped 81 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza residents, and the video most likely depicts this event.
A humanitarian aid box delivered on October 19 to Gaza, featuring the flag of the United Arab Emirates.
As for the third part of the video, it depicts an event from April 2024. A journalist from the well-known outlet Al Jazeera published the original video, from which this footage was clipped, on his Instagram page on April 20 of last year. According to Misbar, several countries delivered aid by air that month, but China was not among them.
 |
 |
| Frame from the circulated video | Frame from the video uploaded on April 20, 2024 |
A video posted in the group “Anti-Maidan! The Voice of the Nation!” also consists of three parts. The first again shows joint military exercises of Chinese and Egyptian forces. In the second clip of the collage, two airplanes can be seen delivering cargo by parachute. During a search for this footage, we located its longer version, which circulated on social media in August 2024, while a shorter clip from this video was published on a website over a year ago, on May 6.
 |
 |
| Frame from the circulated video | Frame from the 2024 video |
 |
 |
| Frame from the circulated video | Frame from the 2024 video |
During the reverse search of the third segment of the video collage, it was also found to have been filmed in 2024. The earliest version was uploaded to TikTok by a user on July 15, though it is possible that the video is even older.
 |
 |
| Frame from the video shared on Facebook | Frame from the video posted in July 2024 |
A video shared by Russian accounts is also a collage of several videos. In the first clip, we see two airplanes and Gaza residents trying to reach the location where the humanitarian cargo supposedly landed. We established that this video is also over a year old and its full version was uploaded to Instagram on April 19, 2024.
 |
 |
| Frame from the Facebook-circulated video | Frame from the April 19, 2024 video |
The second part of the video shows footage taken from inside one of the aircraft, behind which another military Boeing, known as the C-17 Globemaster III, can be seen it. The same aircraft appears in the third part of the video as well. A British defense journal verified this footage and concluded that it could not depict Chinese humanitarian aid, as China does not possess C-17 aircraft. According to the article, only the United States and a few of its allies have the Boeing C-17, and there is no evidence to suggest that China has ever used such a method of delivering aid to the Gaza Strip in recent years.
During its search for the source of this footage, Myth Detector located a longer version of the video, published on March 31, 2024. In this version, the cargo being dropped from the airplane, from which the footage was filmed, is clearly visible. It is worth noting that the cargo bears a sticker of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) flag, indicating that this footage shows a humanitarian operation carried out by this very country. At the 1:51 mark of the circulated video collage, the same flag can be seen on the cargo inside the aircraft. The UAE has repeatedly used this method to deliver aid to Gaza’s population, sometimes on its own and sometimes in cooperation with other countries, and in these operations, it typically uses C-17 Boeing aircraft.
 |
 |
| Frame from the 2024 video | Frame from the video collage shared on Facebook |
Some segments of the rest of the video collage are extensions of the previously discussed clips. One particular segment, however, shows not Chinese aid but Egypt’s humanitarian assistance to Gaza in March 2024.
 |
 |
| Frame from the circulated video collage | Frame from a March 11, 2024 article |
From the 1:50 mark of the video collage, there is a relatively long continuous shot taken from the Arabic TV program Qalby Etmaan, whose main character (Ghaith) helps people living in distress around the world. In episode 28 of the show’s seventh season, Ghaith visited Gaza, delivered humanitarian aid, and provided it to locals via parachutes. Notably, in the widely circulated video, the pilot is seen wearing a UAE flag patch on his shoulder.
 |
 |
| Frame from the circulated video | UAE flag on the pilot’s arm |
As the analysis of the videos shows, none of the footage confirms that China has delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza residents by air. In fact, some clips directly contradict this claim. While China has provided aid to Palestinians on several occasions, it has done so via land and sea routes and by financial contributions to UN funds. Beyond the videos discussed in this article, numerous other clips of similar content have circulated over the past 2-3 weeks, which have been verified by fact-checking organizations, media outlets, and online publications. They also debunked the claims that these videos show Chinese aid to Gaza.
-
Several Arab countries have provided humanitarian aid to Gaza
As noted in the introduction, a Facebook user is spreading the claim that no Arab state has helped Gaza, which is not true. The analysis of the videos already demonstrates that both the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt have delivered humanitarian aid via airdrops on multiple occasions. This method has also been used several times by Jordan. However, air delivery represents only a small portion of the total humanitarian aid sent to Gaza. Aid is delivered mostly overland, by trucks, and much of it is carried out by the United Nations and international human rights organizations, with funding from various countries and donors. In addition to the three Arab countries already mentioned, Qatar and Tunisia sent humanitarian aid to Gaza as early as October 2023. In 2024, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Oman have also joined the list with different types and quantities of aid. Thus, contrary to the circulating claim, the majority of Arab countries have either sent humanitarian aid to the population in Gaza or transferred money to international organizations for that purpose.
It is worth noting, as stated by various actors and international organizations involved in helping the people of Gaza, that air and sea routes cannot replace land routes in terms of efficiency. It should also be emphasized that cargo drops by parachute can pose serious risks to civilians. In one instance, a parachute failed to open, and a heavy crate crashed into a crowded area, killing at least five people. In another case, a three-year-old child died under similar circumstances. Moreover, in March 2024, a large portion of the aid dropped from aircraft fell into the sea, and 12 Palestinians died trying to retrieve it from the shore.
The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.
Read detailed instructions for editing the article.
Read detailed appeal instructions.
