Oct. 19 marked the 12th day of war between Israel and Hamas militants.
As of Oct. 19, 3,785 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 12,500 others have been wounded, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed. An Israeli military spokesperson said Thursday that the families of 206 people believed to have been captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza had been notified.
One video in particular has gone viral in recent days, appearing to show soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo addressing the children in Palestine.
“I am a very famous player, but you are true heroes. Don’t lose your hope, the world is with you,” he says in the video.
The video has been posted on TikTok, Facebook and X, where people have commented that the video isn’t real, or asked if it is AI.
THE QUESTION
Did Cristiano Ronaldo record this video in support of Palestine?
THE SOURCES
- Original video posted by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2016
- InVid and RevEye, video forensics tools
THE ANSWER
No, Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t record this video in support of Palestine. The video was posted in 2016 and was a message for the children of Syria.
WHAT WE FOUND
Cristiano Ronaldo hasn’t posted on any of his social media channels about the war between Israel and Hamas factions since the war began on Oct. 7, and he hasn’t issued any public statements of support for Palestine.
Using InVid to isolate the keyframes in the video and RevEye to conduct a reverse image search, VERIFY traced this video to one Ronaldo posted to his social media accounts on Dec. 23, 2016.
“A message of hope to the children affected by the conflict in Syria. @SavetheChildren,” Ronaldo’s post on X says.
In the first seconds of the original video, Ronaldo clearly says, “Hello, this is for the children of Syria.”
The video being shared along with claims it was a message in support of Palestine was edited to remove the first couple of seconds, eliminating the part of the video that clearly states for whom the message was intended.
Ronaldo issued the 2016 message in partnership with Save the Children, an international human rights organization, and tagged them in the original post.
In 2016, when Ronaldo posted the message, Syrian forces were battling rebels in order to retake control of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, according to reports at the time. By 2016, war had been raging in Syria for four years.
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