Did singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran perform for wounded soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces to show support for Israel? No, that's not true: Sheeran denied this rumor in a now-deleted Instagram story. He stated a charity organization bought tickets to his "large scale public concert." Other reputable entertainment media outlets also posted about Sheeran's denial of the rumor.
The implied claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) on January 21, 2025. The caption read:
Today, I'm thinking of all the Palestinians returning to what used to be their homes to find only rubble, under which lies the remnants their loved ones - all destroyed by Israel.
I'm also thinking of evil dickheads like @edsheeran, who supported the Israeli new-Nazi genociders.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Feb 3 14:44:56 2025 UTC)
The post included a screenshot from an article titled, "How Ed Sheeran brought joy to wounded IDF soldiers - opinion." The Jerusalem Post article published the article (archived here) on September 13, 2024, labeling it as opinion. The article included a photo of Sheeran at a microphone, with the caption stating it was from a Sheeran appearance on the NBC "Today" show on June 6, 2023, before the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict on October 7, 2023. The photo did not show Sheeran performing for soldiers.
The article said that "Israel's leading organization for terror victims and their families flew 180 wounded IDF soldiers ... to Ed Sheeran's Cyprus concert." According to the piece, OneFamily, an organization that operates safe spaces for Israeli victims and their families, flew injured Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and "bereaved young adults" to Cyprus for a Sheeran concert. The article, which appeared to be a personal essay and not a news story, did not explicitly state that the concert was in support of the IDF or Israel.
According to a Cyprus-based publication, Sheeran performed in Larnaca, Cyprus, on September 7 and 8, 2024 (archived here), before a crowd estimated at "45,000 fans." On September 9, 2024, Sheeran also posted about his concerts in Cyprus on his Instagram account.
A now-deleted Instagram post used the same Jerusalem Post headline and photo of Sheeran to make the same implied claim of support for IDF. Sheeran appeared to address that earlier post in an account on X described as the "Official Ed Sheeran HQ account." The screenshot read, in part:
The story about wounded soldiers at my show, was a charity that sourced tickets to my show in Cyprus last year, which was a large scale public concert. This sort of reporting is devisive and damaging, please research before you post things.
Evidence of this is below (archived here):
A statement from Ed on his IG Stories earlier today. - EDHQ pic.twitter.com/RqNtK05e2l
-- Ed Sheeran HQ (@edsheeran) January 21, 2025
At the time this was written, People and Buzzfeed had reviewed the same claim.
Lead Stories contacted Sheeran's publicists and the OneFamily organization and will update this article when a relevant response is received.
Read more
More Lead Stories fact checks of claims involving Ed Sheeran are here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims concerning the IDF can be read here.
