What was claimed
A video shows the Global Sumud Flotilla carrying activists towards Gaza.
Our verdict
This video doesn’t show that flotilla. It is actually fans of the Turkish football club Galatasaray celebrating a title win in May 2025.
Miscaptioned video shows Turkish football fans, not the Gaza aid flotilla
A video being shared online with claims it shows a flotilla of boats bound for Gaza actually shows Turkish football fans.
In the footage, which has been circulating on various social media platforms, multiple boats can be seen travelling in the same direction across a large body of water, some with flags attached.
In a post on Instagram that has been ‘liked’ over 1.5 million times, the video has the caption: “More than 50 boats with activists from 44 nations are sailing together toward Gaza.”
It is true that a flotilla of more than 50 boats is currently attempting to sail to Gaza. But this video actually shows fans of the Turkish football team Galatarasy celebrating winning the Turkish Süper Lig in Istanbul earlier this year.
Full Fact traced the footage to a TikTok video shared on 25 May which included the hashtag “#şampiyon” (which translates to ‘champion’ in English), together with the word “Galatasaray”.
Photos from Getty Images show dozens of fan boats surrounding the club’s official championship ferry for a boat parade on the Bosphorus Strait to celebrate the win on 25 May. The club also shared a video of the boat parade on social media.
In addition, the flags visible in the video being shared match those used by supporters of the club.
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Gaza flotilla
The posts appear to be referencing the Global Sumud Flotilla, which is a collection of around 52 ships with parliamentarians, lawyers and activists, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg on board, currently travelling towards Gaza carrying aid.
As of 29 September, the flotilla was reported to be around 300 miles off the coast of Israel, which continues to enforce a naval blockade to the Gaza strip.
We often see miscaptioned footage being shared widely on social media. Before reposting something you see, first consider whether it comes from a reliable and trustworthy source. Our toolkit and guide to fact checking misleading videos about the Israel-Gaza conflict 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 false because the footage actually shows Turkish football fans, not the flotilla headed towards Gaza.