Video shows Israeli gymnasts performing before Olympics | Fact check

A July 28 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows gymnasts in white uniforms performing in front of an audience. At the end of the performance, some of the gymnasts hold up signs that spell out, “Bring them home now!”
“Israel’s Artistic Gymnastics performing at the Paris Olympics with Powerful Message at the End,” reads text above the video
The post was liked more than 26,000 times in more than two weeks.
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The video shows a gymnastics performance at a school in Israel that took place almost two weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics.
The video shows a year-end performance at a gymnastics school in Rehovot, Israel, that took place July 15, nearly two weeks before the Paris Olympics began, Nirit Danon-Lauper, the school’s director, told USA TODAY.
The performance involved about 60 gymnasts, “some of whom are Israeli champions, competing in European and world championships, and one of them is even a European and world champion,” Danon-Lauper said.
The gymnasts’ message is a reference to the hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the country’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Meirav Leshem Gonen, whose 23-year-old daughter Romi was one of those taken, posted a video of the performance on her verified Facebook account July 26, the same day as the Paris Olympics opening ceremony and before any artistic gymnastics events took place. Her video appears to have been recorded from a similar angle as the Instagram video.
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The school posted an image from the performance on Facebook July 26, and it posted a video July 28 that shows it from a different angle than the Instagram video.
Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza has led to protests around the world and accusations of genocide. The country’s Olympic team said some of its athletes received threats while competing at the Paris Games, the Associated Press reported.
USA TODAY reached out to the gymnastics school and the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
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