In light of fears of an Israeli military operation on the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt, pages and accounts on social media circulated a picture that was said to show Egyptian tanks heading to the border.
The picture shows tanks raising the Egyptian flag on what appears to be dirt land.
But this photo was actually taken by an Agence France-Presse photographer last October, and it has nothing to do with fears of an Israeli ground attack on Rafah currently.
The accompanying comments stated that the picture shows armored reinforcements sent by Egypt to the border with the Gaza Strip.
Screen capture on February 13, 2024 from the X website
The circulation of this image comes in this context as fears mount of an Israeli ground attack on the city of Rafah, which is home to 1.4 million people.
The possibility of an attack of this kind raises great concern abroad.
On Tuesday, China called on Israel to stop its military operation as soon as possible and to make every effort to avoid innocent civilian casualties…to prevent a more serious humanitarian catastrophe in the Rafah area.
On Monday, Jordanian King Abdullah II said that the world “cannot bear (the consequences of) an Israeli attack” on Rafah, pointing out “an already unbearable situation for more than a million people who have been pushed towards (this border city with Egypt) since the war began.” .
In this context, this photo spread, which was said to be of Egyptian reinforcements heading to the border with the Gaza Strip.
The truth of the picture
But the picture has nothing to do with these fears or the possibility of Israel launching a ground attack on Rafah.
This photo was distributed by Agence France-Presse about four months ago.
The photo was taken last October 31 on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, that is, about three weeks after the start of the war following the unprecedented Hamas attack on the seventh of that month.
2024-02-13 13:14:50
#picture #Egyptian #tanks #massing #border #Gaza. #reality
