A clip of people running through the entrance of a Bruno Mars concert in Tel Aviv on Oct 4 is circulating with the false claim that it shows people running from an attack at a festival in the Negev Desert on Saturday.
Hamas gunmen killed 260 people and took others captive at an Israeli music festival, Nature Party, in the Negev Desert on Saturday. The party, which took place near Kibbutz Re'im close to Gaza, was one of the first targets in an attack that killed at least 700 people on Saturday. Israel retaliated with bombings of Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 400 people.
After the attack, social media users shared a clip showing dozens of people running toward a fence in a park, with water slides viewable in the background. Text printed across the video reads: “FESTIVAL ATTENDEES RUNNING FOR THEIR LIVES.”
One user shared the video on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Oct 7 with a caption, “Praying for the people of Israel.” Another individual shared the video on TikTok on Oct 9. Further text printed across the video reads: “Israel Confirms 260 Young Children were Slaughtered by the Palestinian Terrorists.”
The earliest iteration of the video Reuters found stems from a TikTok account uploaded on Oct 5, two days before the attack at the festival in the Negev Desert.
The caption at the top of the clip, written in Hebrew, says that it shows the moment the gates opened at a Bruno Mars concert.
The user did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
At the 00:13 mark, a Bruno Mars poster is viewable, with "Live Nation" seen at the top of the poster. Live Nation is a company that promotes and sells concert tickets.
Reuters located the video to HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv, where Bruno Mars held a concert on Oct 4.
The skyscraper in construction in the background matches the render of the HYP commercial and office project.
Other videos uploaded to TikTok filmed at the same park from various angles show people running with captions linking them to the Mars concert.
Live Nation's Israel Instagram account announced on Oct 7 that Mars' second concert scheduled for that evening was cancelled.
Live Nation did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
VERDICT
Miscaptioned. The video shows people running through entrance gates at a Bruno Mars concert in Tel Aviv, uploaded to TikTok on Oct 5. The video pre-dates the attack at the Nature Party in the Negev Desert on Saturday.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.
