Fact Check: Viral video does not show Tel Aviv under attack by Iran
The video is old and shows a rocket fired from Lebanon landing in Kiryat Shmona, Israel, in November 2023.
By Sibahathulla Sakib Published on 5 Aug 2024 9:23 AM GMT
Claim: Viral video shows Iran launching an attack on Tel Aviv amid growing tensions with Israel.
Fact: The claim is false. The video is old and shows a rocket fired from Lebanon landing in Israel in November 2023.
Hyderabad: In the wake of the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in an Israeli airstrike in Iran, concerns about a potential war between Israel and Iran are escalating. Amid these tensions, a video falsely claiming that Tel Aviv is on fire has gone viral on social media.
An X user shared the video with the caption, “BREAKING: TEL AVIV IS ON FIRE.”
A similar post can be seen here.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false.
Upon doing a reverse image search of the video’s screenshots, we found the same video on X with the caption, “Urgent Hezbollah in an official statement: We added to our fire schedule the new settlement ‘Beit Hillal’ and bombed it for the first time with dozens of ‘Katyusha’ rockets.” (translated from Arabic)
We also found the same viral video posted by the official X account of The Insider Paper on November 2, 2023, with the caption, “BREAKING: Rocket fired from Lebanon lands in Kiryat Shmona, Israel, caused massive fire and damaged property.”
This indicated that the video was old.
A keyword search indicated that Hezbollah’s retaliation involved attacks on the Beit Hillel region and the Upper Galilee settlement. We found a video report by The Times of India, posted on August 4, 2024, titled ‘Hezbollah’s Roaring Revenge Jolts Israel; 50 Back-To-Back Attacks In Beit Hillel, Upper Galilee.’
According to the report, Hezbollah launched 50 Katyusha rockets into northern Israel following an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon.
We verified this information with a report from Express dated November 2, 2023, titled ‘Rocket fired from Lebanon lands in Israel, causing huge explosion as war in Gaza rages.’
The report, accompanied by a photo from the video, confirmed that a rocket launched from Lebanon struck a residential area in the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel.
Hence the claim that Tel Aviv is on fire is false. The video is old and shows a rocket fired from Lebanon landing in Kiryat Shmona, Israel, in November 2023.
