IN SHORT: As tensions between the Middle Eastern countries of Iran and Israel grow, there’s a new wave of misinformation about the conflict on social media. A video that has been online for almost 10 years has resurfaced, with the new claim it shows Iran's attack on Israel in April 2024.
Note: This report includes details about a breaking news story. Information was, as far as possible, correct at the time of publication but may change rapidly.
A video allegedly showing Iran firing missiles at Israel has gone viral on Facebook.
One post, dated 14 April 2024, reads: “First batch of Eid Gifts from Iran to Israhell..Loving it.”
The same claim and video can also be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Israel-Iran conflict
Tensions between the Middle Eastern countries of Iran and Israel continue to escalate.
On 1 April, Israel attacked the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing several Iranian officers and bringing Israel and Iran to the verge of an open war.
In response, the Iranian government launched its own attack, with reports of drones and cruise missiles fired at Israel on 13 April.
On 19 April, Israel reportedly retaliated by launching strikes against Iran.
But does this viral video show Iran firing missiles at Israel? We checked.
Ignore old video
With the help of video verification tool Invid and a Google reverse image search, Africa Check found a longer version of the video circulating on Facebook.
The video was posted on YouTube in December 2014. A machine translation of the caption from Russian to English reads: “HEAVY Night barrage of hail.”
A longer version was posted on YouTube again in February 2016, with the caption: “RUSSIAN CLUSTER BOMB ATTACK ONTO ISIS.”
Isis is a militant Sunni Islamist group that captured and held large parts of northern Iraq and eastern Syria from 2014 to 2019.
We googled that caption and found several news reports about Russian strikes on Syria, and specifically Isis, between 2015 and 2016.
Although the origins of the video circulating on Facebook are unclear, it is not related to the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict. It has been online since at least 2014.
Africa Check previously debunked a claim that another video showed Iran’s hypersonic missile being launched towards Israel in April 2024.
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