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.
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00:00No, the U.K. and U.S. didn't bomb Yemen protests.
00:09A video shared on X allegedly shows British and American forces bombing a million-person
00:14rally for Palestine in Yemen. It shows swathes of people gathered near the Al-Saleh mosque
00:19in Sana'a, Yemen and has amassed thousands of views, shares and likes. It depicts the
00:24crowd listening to speeches and chanting in support. But at no point in the video is there
00:29any sign of an attack, explosion or airstrike. That's because no such bombing against the
00:34protesters took place by U.S. and U.K. forces or by anyone else. Firstly, the video and
00:40false caption was shared by an account that regularly shares false and misleading content,
00:45despite having a large following and lots of exposure, which should already make us
00:49tread cautiously. Next, while the video does indeed show a protest in Yemen, the context
00:54is different from the one claimed. The video and the protest are old. Reuters reported
00:59on it on the 12th of January 2024, saying that tens of thousands took to the streets
01:05to condemn British and American airstrikes on Yemen in response to attacks by Houthi
01:09militants on Red Sea shipping. The strikes were tangentially linked to Palestine, as
01:14Israel's war in Gaza triggered wider conflict in the region, but it's wrong to label the
01:19protest as a rally for Palestine only. After Hamas attacked Israel on the 7th of October
01:242023, Israel launched its assault on Gaza, which then prompted the Iran-aligned Houthis
01:30to attack shipping lines and fire missiles towards Israel to try and get it to stop its
01:35offensive. The demonstration in the video took place after the U.S. and U.K. attack,
01:40not during it, with Houthi leaders saying it amounted to terrorism and labelling the
01:44U.S. the devil. Furthermore, there have been no reports of British or American forces bombing
01:50a protest in Yemen, either by any reputable news outlets or Yemeni authorities themselves.