A video of football fans tossing soft toys on to the pitch has recently gone viral on social media falsely linking it to the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The claims with the video states that the toys were thrown on the football field to show support for Palestinian children amid unrelenting airstrikes by Israel.
BOOM found that the claim is false. The video shows a glimpse of a large-scale donation drive in Istanbul, Turkey, on February 26, 2023, for child survivors of the devastating Turkey earthquake.
More than 1,400 Israelis were killed and 200 taken hostage in the initial ambush by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Over 7000 Palestinians have been killed so far according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
The video is being shared with a caption saying, "The Football Ground became a battlefield for the Palestinians Thank you all for taking a stand in favor of Palestine".
Click here to view the post.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on one of the keyframes from the video using Google Lens and came across a post by Sky Sports Football's official X handle carrying a photograph uploaded on February 27, 2023.
The image showed a footballer bending to pick up a toy amid several soft toys strewn on the football field. The photo was uploaded with a caption saying, "Incredible. Besiktas supporters threw hundreds of toys and stuffed animals for children affected by the earthquakes onto their pitch".
Click here to view the post.
Taking a cue, we ran a search for keywords such as "Besiktas soft toys earthquake" and found several news reports from February 27 this year. Some of those news reports carried videos of spectators tossing soft toys onto the football field, with footballers collecting the toys.
One such report by BBC was posted on X (formerly Twitter) with a caption saying, "Thousands of soft toys thrown onto football pitch in Turkey for children affected by recent earthquakes".
Click here to view the post.
Apart from this, we also found a statement by the Turkish football club Besiktas J.K. about the incident. The statement from February 26, 2023, reads, "To boost the morale of children affected by the recent earthquakes, Beşiktaş supporters organised a unique donation event called "This Toy is for You," to be held at Vodafone Park during Beşiktaş’ match against Antalyaspor. At exactly the 17th second of the 4th minute of the match, which corresponded to the time of the first earthquake, Beşiktaş supporters threw brand new stuffed toys onto the pitch. The toys will be delivered to the children living in the earthquake-hit areas with Beşiktaş aid trucks."
A report published by international news agency Associated Press on February 15, 2023, quoting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the February 6 quake killed more than 35,000 people and leaving 105,505 people injured.
Besiktas also uploaded some glimpses from the donation drive on February 26, 2023, on their official YouTube channel.