Fact Check: Iranian airstrikes on Tel Aviv? No, viral videos are old

Hyderabad: After Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was allegedly killed in joint US–Israeli airstrikes, tensions between the countries have surged. In response, Iran launched missile and drone strikes across the Middle East, including attacks on US and allied military positions in the United Arab Emirates.

Amid the ongoing conflict, two videos surfaced on social media, both claiming to show Iranian airstrikes on Tel Aviv, Israel. One video shows a massive explosion, with flames lighting up the sky. The other appears to show a missile striking a building and splitting it into two parts.

An X user named ‘Arif Nacaroğlu’ shared both videos (links here and here), claiming they show bombings in Tel Aviv. (Archive 1, Archive 2)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. While one video shows an explosion from 2015 in China, the other shows an airstrike in Gaza in 2023. Both were falsely shared as footage of recent attacks on Tel Aviv.

Analysis of the first video

We conducted a reverse image search on keyframes from the viral video and found that it dates to 2015. A BBC report dated August 14, 2015, stated that the footage shows a massive explosion in Tianjin, China. Dozens of people were killed and more than a hundred were injured when a warehouse owned by a company specialising in handling hazardous goods caught fire and exploded.

We compared the videos and confirmed they show the same incident. The commentary of the person who recorded the footage can also be heard in both clips.

Analysis of the second video

A reverse image search led us to several news reports (links here, here and here) featuring a screenshot of the viral clip. The image captures the moment just before a missile struck the building.

According to a Reuters report dated April 7, 2023, the image shows smoke rising amid buildings during Israeli airstrikes in Gaza on April 6. The caption for the image read, “Smoke rises amid buildings during Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, April 6. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem”.

The attack was part of Israel’s military strikes on Lebanon and Gaza, carried out in retaliation for rocket attacks that it blamed on the Islamist group Hamas. The report further read that the escalation came amid rising tensions following police raids at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

We were unable to locate the source of the original video. However, we conducted an image comparison and confirmed that the building is in Gaza and was most likely captured in 2023 during the Israeli attacks.

According to reports, at least nine people were killed and 20 injured in Iranian strikes on Israel.

Therefore, we can conclude that the viral videos have nothing to do with Iranian airstrikes on Tel Aviv, Israel. The claim is false.