Fact Check: Fireworks gone wrong at pro-Hamas rally in Turkey? Clip is months old

At a pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul on October 28, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel was an occupier in its war in Gaza and made a controversial statement: “I reiterate that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation.” Now, a video of a fireworks mishap that allegedly happened during one such rally in Turkey has been widely shared.

“The Turks decided to support #HamasTerrorists and punishment came for this. Watch,” read one X post containing the video. “Is it Allah’s will or karma? The Turks decided to support Hamas Terrorists and they got punished,” read another. Archived versions of such posts can be seen here and here.

India Today Fact Check found that the video is nearly five months old and unrelated to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

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Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led us to a Turkish news report from May 29 that contained a screengrab from the viral video.

As per news reports, this happened in Fatih, Istanbul on May 28 during the celebrations of national election results. People had reportedly gathered in large numbers in the streets to celebrate the victory of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when a youth dropped a firework he had lifted into the air, and it exploded among the crowd.

Several Turkish news outlets also reported this incident on May 29. These reports noted that the explosion did not kill or injure anyone severely.

A keyword search in Turkish also led us to an Instagram video shared on May 29. The Turkish caption of this post roughly translates to, “Citizens celebrated after almost all ballot boxes had been opened, but carelessness led to dangerous moments.”

Thus, it is clear that an old video from Turkey was falsely linked to the Israel-Palestine conflict.