Fact Check: Viral video of explosion in China falsely shared as Hezbollah attack on Israel
Viral video shows a series of explosions at a chemical plant
By Sibahathulla Sakib Published on 26 Sep 2024 3:16 PM GMT
Claim: The video shows the aftermath of Hezbollah launching missiles on an Israeli base.
Fact: The claim is false. The video shows explosions at a chemical plant in China.
Hyderabad: September 2024 is witnessing Israel intensifying airstrikes in Lebanon with Hezbollah announcing that it has targeted the Mossad headquarters with a ballistic missile.
Amid these developments, a video claiming to show Hezbollah attacking an Israeli base with missiles has gone viral. A Facebook user shared the video, captioning it: ā#Hezbollah Hits Israeli Base By Guided Missiles And Causes Complete Destruction. Hezbollah #Israel.ā
The 13-second video, seemingly filmed from a balcony, shows flames erupting from large metal structures.
Similar posts shared by two premium X accounts can be seen here and here. (Archive 1, Archive 2)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video shows an explosion at a Chinese chemical plant.
A reverse image search led to a YouTube video titled, āChinese chemical plant explosionā, uploaded on November 19, 2015, featuring the same viral footage. Due to the higher quality of the video, we noticed that the structures in the video are similar to the ones seen in factories.
The date of the upload also indicated that the clip is old.
Further keyword search led us to a report by Military.com dated November 26, 2015, titled āExplosion at Chemical Plant in Zhejiang China,ā which featured an extended version of the viral video.
In the 51-second clip, the viral segment appeared at the 29-second mark.
A report by Manufacturing.Net published on November 30, 2015, also reported about the incident and featured the viral video.
According to the report, the video showed flames and smoke emanating from a chemical plant in Zhejiang province, China. While firefighters were battling the fire, a series of explosions occurred, sending smoke billowing into the sky.
Hence, the claim is false. The viral video documented an explosion at a chemical plant in China and not Hezbollah attacking an Israeli base.
