Does a social media video of three young women fighting off multiple men in a tunnel passageway depict an actual event involving Israeli girls -- or, depending on different versions using the same video, French paramilitary women or Turkish girls? No, that's not true: It's a staged skit, and the fight is fake. The video features trained professionals and was recorded and originally shared on social media by a French stunt school, for entertainment purposes.
One version of the claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on November 14, 2023. Above a video post featuring three young women fighting off multiple men in a tunnel, the caption opened:
There once was three Israeli girls... and they lived happily ever after.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken Tue Nov 21 15:00:00 UTC 2023)
The 27-second video shows three young women walking into a tunnel and then being confronted by multiple men who appear to touch them inappropriately. In response, the young women begin fighting the men, and after all the men are down the women flee the tunnel on the other end. The post claims that this depicts three Israeli girls and does not clarify whether or not the footage portrays a real fight.
Variations of the claim have been shared on social media with the exact video seen in the post. A November 10, 2023, X post (archived here) says in a Spanish-language caption (translated by Google) that these are three "beautiful and empowered" French women." A November 7, 2023, Instagram post (archived here) implies in its Turkish-language caption that this is a real fight that may have taken place in Turkey. Still another version posted on X on November 18, 2023 (archived here), claims in its Dutch caption that the woman are "paramilitaries of the French army."
A reverse image search (archived here) using Google Lens showed a November 15, 2023, post (archived here) on X by a BBC News journalist who said that this video is a promotional video initially posted on Instagram by a company that specifically trains stunt performers.
The original video is on this November 2, 2023, Instagram post (archived here), from the verified account of Campus Univers Cascades. The company describes itself on its website (translated from French to English using Google Translate) as a "professional training center dedicated to stunt techniques in cinema and entertainment," where the goal is "to offer the best possible training around the world supervised by a team of experienced and recognized professional stuntmen in France." The hashtags in this original post caption include "stunt team" and "choreography."
