A protest depicted in a video on social media happened last year, in response to US and UK airstrikes on Yemen after Houthi militants attacked shipping lanes. The demonstration itself was not bombed.
A video shared on X allegedly shows British and American forces bombing a million-person rally for Palestine in Yemen.
It shows swathes of people gathered near the Al-Saleh Mosque in Sanaa, Yemen and has amassed thousands of views, shares and likes.
It depicts the crowd listening to speeches and chanting in support, but at no point in the video is there any sign of an attack, explosion or airstrike.
That’s because no such bombing against the protesters took place, by US and UK forces or by anyone else.
Firstly, the video and false caption were shared by an account that regularly shares false and misleading content, despite having a large following and lots of exposure, which should already make us tread cautiously.
Next, while the video does indeed show a protest in Yemen, the context is different from the one claimed.
The video and the protest are old: Reuters reported on it on 12 January 2024, saying that tens of thousands took to the streets to condemn British and American strikes on Yemen in response to attacks by Houthi militants on Red Sea shipping.
The strikes were tangentially linked to Palestine as Israel’s war in Gaza triggered wider conflict in the region, it’s wrong to label the protest as a rally for Palestine only.
After Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel launched its assault on Gaza, which then prompted the Iran-aligned Houthis to attack shipping lines and fire missiles towards Israel, to try and get it to stop its offensive.
The demonstration in the video took place after the US-UK attack, not during it, with Houthi leaders saying it amounted to “terrorism” and labelling the US “the devil”.
Furthermore, there have been no reports of British or American forces bombing a protest in Yemen, either by any reputable news outlets or Yemeni authorities themselves.
The Houthis began attacking ships in the important Red Sea trade corridor in November 2023. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, the Yemeni group has targeted over 100 merchant vessels.
The group asserts that it has just targeted vessels linked to Israel and its backers, which include the US and the UK. However, it has also struck ships with no connection to the Israel-Hamas conflict, including some heading to Iran.
They recently announced that they will only attack Israeli-affiliated vessels in the Red Sea, the day after a ceasefire was declared in Gaza.
The Humanitarian Operations Coordination Centre (HOOC), which liaises between the Houthis and commercial shipping operators, said the group would lift “sanctions” against other ships.
When all stages of the Gaza ceasefire have fully been implemented, the Houthis will also stop targeting Israeli vessels, according to the HOOC.
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