A compilation video is circulating online with claims that it shows China delivering aid to Gaza via air drops during Israel’s recent aid blockade. But at least two of the videos date from April 2024, and we’ve seen no evidence that China has carried out such air drops.
The video has been shared on Instagram with the caption: “Humanity is still Alive Thank you China 🇨🇳 for providing Aid in Gaza.”
While we haven’t been able to find the original sources for all the clips in this compilation, there is no evidence that it depicts what is claimed.
Text within the first clip in the video, which was shared on 17 May, says: “Today China provided aid to the people in Gaza while our Muslim leaders were busy celebrating deals with the USA.”
Dozens of packages tied to parachutes can be seen falling from the sky, with people running underneath. This clip has also been circulating on its own on YouTube and Facebook.
However this footage has been online since at least April 2024, when it was shared on TIkTok with a description saying: “Aid air drop on different parts of Gaza [sic].”
A watermark on the video says “hema.alkhalili”, which is the handle of Al Jazeera journalist Ibrahim Al-khalili working in Gaza. He shared a much longer version of the same video on his account on 20 April 2024.
The second video shows two military planes flying overhead, one of which drops a number of parachutes. Text overlaid on this clip reads “Thank you China” and “Help for Gaza”.
While we were not able to match the second clip with footage elsewhere, a frame of the clip of parachutes being dropped matches a still image on Getty Images, which shows a humanitarian aid drop in Gaza.
A description with the photo says it was taken on 30 April 2024 in the northern districts of Gaza.
It is not clear which country or organisation is responsible for the aid drops depicted in both clips.
However, the plane in the second clip appears to be a Boeing C-17A Globemaster III, a class of military transport and cargo aircraft used by the United States and others in the the 12-nation Strategic Airlift Capability (which does not include China), as well as the UK, Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and India.
We have not been able to verify the final two clips in the compilation.
Air aid drops from multiple countries, including the US, UK, Jordan, France, Germany, Indonesia, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, did take place during March 2024 and April 2024, but we’ve not found any reports of these involving China.
The most recent reports we could find of China delivering aid to Gaza date from February 2025, before Israel stopped all deliveries of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March.
But according to Chinese media reports, this aid was to be transported to Gaza from Jordan over land borders. Images from February showed trucks loaded with what was described as Chinese aid ready to depart in Jordan.
Full Fact has seen no credible reports that China has been delivering aid via air during the recent Israeli aid blockade, which has now been eased after 11 weeks to allow a limited amount of food and aid into Gaza.
And 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 verifiable source. Our guides to spotting misleading images and videos from the Israel-Gaza conflict can help you do this.