Video from WYD Lisbon 2023 passed off as 'Palestinians sleeping in the open' during Israel-Hamas war

What's the claim?

Amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, there has been a surge in various false and misleading narratives on social media. One video shows numerous people sleeping in the open, claiming to show the plight of Palestinians during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. 

The video also carries a text overlay, "There was no place to sleep last night" and "free Palestine please". Archive to the links are here, here, here, and here. 

Screenshot of claim circulating online (Source: X/Youtube/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

What are the facts?

On conducting a reverse image search, we found the original video from August 2023. A YouTube user, Solo Catecumenos, posted the video on August 6, 2023, with a caption in Spanish: "This is how the million and a half young people spent the night in #Lisbon #Lisbon2023 #WYD2023." 

Video on Solo Catecumenos channel. (Source: YouTube)

SIC Notícias, a Portuguese television network, published a report on the event on August 6, 2023, with the headline "On the last day of WYD, Parque Tejo-Trancão was home and bed for pilgrims." The report had an image from the event that showed people sleeping in the open, similar to the visuals in the viral video. The 0:12 timestamp from the viral video matches the viral footage, showing a video screen console and the lighting system to the image in the report. The report stated, "The sleeping bags of more than 1.5 million young people now paint the 100 hectares of the Tagus-Trancão Park. World Youth Day (WYD) tradition dictates that young people sleep in the area between the vigil..."

We found another image on Shutterstock that matched the backdrop in the viral video. The Shutterstock entry also noted the photo's location as World Youth Day 2023, Lisbon, Portugal. 

Comparison of viral video to SIC Noticias and Shutterstock images (Source: X/Websites/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the event?

World Youth Day (WYD) sees the gathering of young people from all over the world for the Pope. It is celebrated every two, three, or four years. In 2023, it was held in Lisbon, Portugal.

The MJ Lisboa 2023 official website also shared a video highlighting the sixth day of the event. In the video also, we can see people sleeping in the open at 0:15 seconds. Likewise, France 24, on August 6, 2023, published a video report on their YouTube channel with the caption, "World Youth Day ended in Lisbon with a mass of 1.5 million people." At 0:07 seconds, we can see people sleeping in the open, as in the viral video.

The verdict

The video showing people sleeping on the ground in the open is from a Youth festival in August 2023 unrelated to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.