What was claimed
A video shows a Chinese cargo plane carrying aid for Gaza escorted by smaller aircraft for protection, entering Gaza through Egypt.
Our verdict
This isn’t accurate. The video actually shows a joint military exercise between Egypt and China above the pyramids.
A video of a formation of aircraft flying over Egyptian pyramids has been shared online with misleading claims it depicts Chinese aid being flown to Gaza.
It has been shared on Facebook with the caption: “China had recently promised to provide food aid to 60,000 families, and now it has fulfilled that promise. You can see the cargo plane carrying aid for Gaza, escorted by smaller aircraft for protection. The plane is entering Gaza through Egypt.”
The clip has also been shared on Instagram and YouTube with similar claims that it depicts Chinese planes flying over Egypt to deliver aid to Gaza.
But the footage actually shows a joint military exercise by China and Egypt, called “Eagles of Civilisation 2025” which took place from 19 April to 4 May.
This involved aircraft from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force and the Egyptian Air Force flying together over the Sahara.
The same video was shared on Instagram by an account called Aviation Diary on 17 May, with the caption: “For the first time ever, Chinese and Egyptian fighter jets took to the skies in a powerful display of military cooperation during the joint exercise Eagles of Civilization 2025.
“Held in Egypt from April 19 to May 4, this landmark drill featured China’s cutting-edge J-10C jets, KJ-500 surveillance aircraft, and YU-20 refuelers in full force. The exercises included air combat, rescue missions, and stunning flyovers of the Pyramids—signaling a new era of strategic alignment between Beijing and Cairo.”
Other footage and images of the military drill also shows aircraft flying over the pyramids.
The most recent reports we could find of China pledging aid to Gaza date from February 2025, when it announced it would deliver 60,000 food parcels which would be transported from Jordan. This was announced before Israel stopped all deliveries of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March.
According to Chinese media reports, this aid was to be transported to Gaza over land borders and not by air. We’re not sure how much of this aid was delivered before the blockade began, but it appears that the first batch at least was delivered in February, according to Chinese media.
As we found in a previous fact check of a miscaptioned video that was being shared with claims it showed China airdropping aid into Gaza, Full Fact has seen no credible reports that China has been delivering aid by air during the recent Israeli blockade. This blockade has now been eased after 11 weeks to allow a limited amount of food and aid into Gaza.
Similar claims about other images or videos supposedly showing China airdropping aid have been widely debunked by other fact checkers.
Before sharing content like this that you see online, first consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and reliable source. Our toolkit and guide to spotting misleading videos can help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as partly false because this is a video of a joint military exercise between China and Egypt, not an aid delivery to Gaza.
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