Does a video show Israelis storming a ship to flee the war and go to Cyprus? No, that's not true: The scene is from the Philippines and shows people boarding a ferry service. The video has been online since at least March 8, 2026 and shows several details consistent with the Philippines.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) on X on March 19, 2026. It read:
Residents of Israel are fleeing illegally to Cyprus.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @TMT_arabic on X.com.)
Original video
A reverse image search (archived here) on Google Images traced the video to a post (archived here) from the Philippines on Instagram on March 8, 2026, predating the posts linking it to Israel, which started appearing around March 18, 2026. Translated from Tagalog (archived here), the official language of the Philippines, it read:
There are a lot of passengers because it's payday today.
The translated caption (archived here) on the video says:
Alen - The Sursogon bridge should be funded by the government, but the current administration is corrupt, guys.
This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by jdomingoescorevilla on Instagram.)
A ship from the same ferry line can be seen in this video (archived here) on YouTube for a route from Pasacao to Burias Island in the Philippines:
(Image source: post by @angelineturbolenciaa on YouTube.)
Lead Stories put the ships from the two videos (one claiming to be Israel and the other in the Philippines) side-by-side to show that they look the same. We also circled the "Welcome Aboard" messages. The terrain surrounding the ships is very similar.
(Image sources from X.com and YouTube.)
