What was claimed
A photo shows Palestinians celebrating in the streets after the announcement of the recent Gaza ceasefire deal.
Our verdict
This is an old photo. It shows Palestinians celebrating a ceasefire in May 2021.
Old photo of Palestinians celebrating shared as recent
A photo of a crowd of people waving Palestinian flags has been circulating on social media following the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, with captions that imply it is recent. But it actually dates back to May 2021.
Several posts have shared the photo with the caption: “Apparently, it is no longer freezing in Gaza. Suddenly, everyone is wearing tank tops and t-shirts.” This may refer to recent reports that night-time temperatures in Gaza fell to 7°C in December 2024, leading to eight babies dying from hypothermia.
But this photo predates recent events. It actually shows Palestinians celebrating a ceasefire ending 11 days of conflict between Hamas and Israel in 2021. The photo was taken in May, not January, of that year.
The photo was incorrectly shared with a caption saying it was recent in a Times of Israel article published on 16 January with the headline: “What the Palestinian victory celebrations mean”. The photo was changed after Full Fact contacted the newspaper about the error.
Photos of Palestinians celebrating the January 2025 ceasefire show them in more layers of clothing, not “tank tops and t-shirts” as claimed in the posts.
News of the Gaza ceasefire agreement emerged on 15 January following mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the US to stop 15 months of conflict, and it eventually began on 19 January. The deal outlines an initial six-week ceasefire allowing 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza a day, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of dozens of hostages taken by Hamas in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.
We’ve checked many videos and images about the conflict in the Middle East that have been miscaptioned to claim they show something they do not. This includes debunking multiple pieces of content claiming to show Palestinians pretending to be dead or staging scenes of suffering in Gaza, which is often referred to on social media as ‘Pallywood’ (a portmanteau of Palestine and Bollywood).
It is important to consider whether something shows what it claims before sharing it—you can read more about this in our guide about how to fact check misleading videos.
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 missing context because the photo was taken in May 2021, and doesn’t show celebrations following the January 2025 ceasefire as the posts imply.