The video, which shows the planes flying in an orderly fashion, went viral on social media around the world, including in Arabic, Indonesian and English.
Former US ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman also shared a false claim on his X account.
Egyptian military parade
A reverse image search of the video on Google found it had previously been posted on TikTok on October 3 — more than three weeks before the Israelis attacked Iran (archived link).
The Arabic subtitles of the video translate as: “Egyptian soldiers.”
Below is a screenshot comparison of the fake post (left) and the original 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 graduation ceremony at a military base on October 3.
According to the State Information Service of Egypt, the Egyptian Military Academy in Cairo held a graduation ceremony that day (link saved).
“The event included beautiful aerial photography, helicopters carrying the Egyptian flag and military symbols, and the construction of 19 airplanes representing the students of the 118th class,” it said on its website.
Arabic-speaking AFP journalists confirmed that a man who could be heard off-camera in the video was speaking Egyptian Arabic, saying: “God bless you” as the planes took off.
A man — perhaps the same person — is heard saying “eagles of the sky” in the same dialect.
Moreover, the Egyptian car license the plate can be seen in the video, which corresponds to those commonly used in the North African country, as shown on the website WorldLicensePlates.com (link saved).
There have been no official reports that the Israeli military used Egyptian aircraft after the attack on Iran.
Iran’s neighbor, Iraq, condemned Israel’s use of airspace in its attack in a letter of protest sent to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council, Baghdad said (link saved).
AFP has also released false information related to the Middle East conflict.
