At the end of September 2025, a video showing many boats went viral on the Internet. The comments claim that activists from 44 countries are bringing medicine and food to Palestine. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
A video of a flotilla of boats among the raging waves and a caption about an unprecedented action to help the Palestinians went viral Telegram, Instagram, Facebook, Threads And TikTok. Posts receive thousands of reposts and tens of thousands of likes. The comment under the video in most publications is identical: “More than 50 boats with activists from 44 countries are sailing together towards Gaza. This is the largest civilian flotilla in modern history, a joint effort to challenge the illegal siege and bring hope to the Palestinian people!” The video is accompanied by music, so the words of the alleged activists, who are clearly rejoicing and shouting something, cannot be heard.
The flotilla that the publications are apparently talking about is the so-called flotilla “Sumud" The project involves hundreds of activists (including Greta Thunberg) from 44 countries, trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip despite the Israeli naval blockade. The ships left Spain on August 31, 2025, made intermediate stops in Tunisia and Crete and were expected to arrive in Palestine in early October. Israeli officials stated, that they would not allow the activists to moor at their destination, and on the night of October 2 intercepted 13 ships. The remaining boats, according to the flotilla, continue to move towards Gaza.
On its website, the Sumud flotilla conducts direct broadcasts from ships, but nothing resembling the viral video could be found among them. But using a reverse image search on Google, “Verified” found a much earlier fast with a viral video. On May 26, 2025, a few months before the flotilla's departure, a TikTok user with the username @batu.kaya.21 posted an 11-second video with the caption “Galatasaray” and the Turkish hashtags “Istanbul” and “champion.”
Galatasaray is a football club from Istanbul, which a few days before became champion of Turkey. The video shows fans celebrating the success of their favorite team - the main character of the video is wearing a branded T-shirt with the Galatasaray logo. On May 25th the team noted their championship on a ferry, which was surrounded by several dozen boats and yachts with fans.
Despite the live broadcasts organized by members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, this is not the first time that Internet users are trying to pass off other videos and pictures as documentary footage taken on board boats. Thus, previously, in the English-language segment of social networks, photo, generated by AI - users also claimed that they were captured by the flotilla.
Thus, the viral video of the boats is real, but has nothing to do with the mission to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. It was taken a few months earlier by a Turkish football fan who was celebrating his favorite team's victory in the national championship.
Cover photo: screenshot “Verified”
- AP. What to know about the international fleet seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza
- Reuters. Fact Check: Galatasaray boat celebrations in Istanbul miscaptioned as Gaza aid flotilla
- Is the video of Egyptians delivering water and food across the border to residents of the Gaza Strip true?
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