Claim: A video shows Benjamin Netanyahu running, apparently in fear, after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel in October 2024.
Fact: The viral clip is unrelated to Iran’s October 2024 attack on Israel. It is actually from 2021 and shows Netanyahu running to the Israeli parliament to cast his vote for a then-proposed law.
On 2 October 2024, Facebook user ‘Shia Posting’ published (archive) a video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fleeing, allegedly to a shelter, after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on the Middle Eastern nation a day prior, in what became the Islamic Republic’s second such move after the April 2024 strikes.
The text accompanying the post by @ammaralihassan reads, “نیتن یاہو کے فرار کا لمحہ.😂😂 [The moment when Netanyahu fled. 😂😂]”. The video has so far garnered over 203,000 views, as of publishing time.
Iran’s second attack on Israel
On 1 October 2024, Iran fired approximately 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in what became the Islamic Republic’s largest attack on the Middle Eastern state to date — and second in 2024 — with Israelis running to bomb shelters and alarms sounding throughout, Al Jazeera reported, adding that “explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv”.
CNN reported that according to Iran’s Army Chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the strike — codenamed Operation True Promise — targeted Israeli military structure, including the Nevatim and Hatzor air bases, as well as Mossad intelligence agency. Tehran said the move was an act of self-defence, which was in retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Maj Gen Abbas Nilforoushan, and Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the IRGC’s al-Quds force, among other high-ranking figures.
According to the BBC, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said his country managed to intercept most of the missiles, with “a small number of hits in the centre of Israel” and “only minor” damage to its infrastructure and property. A report, citing Israel’s Tax Authority, said the attack led to an estimated $40-53 million worth of “damage to private property”.
The Times of Israel, on the other hand, reported that Iran’s strike “was more aggressive than initially reported in Hebrew media”. It said international news outlets — such as CNN, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Associated Press — “analyzed satellite images and drew some critical conclusions about the extent of the damage and Iran’s ballistic capabilities”. Their reports “appear to suggest that Israel’s defense systems were more vulnerable in last week’s attack”, the publication added.
Moreover, the Israeli military apparently imposed a “strict censorship” on reporting about Iran’s attack, it emerged. A Palestinian man, identified as Sameh Khadr Hassan Al-Asali, was the “only known victim” of the strike.
On the other hand, Netanyahu has promised that Iran will “pay” for its ballistic missile strike in October, while Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the response would be “deadly, precise and above all surprising”. Tehran has vowed a “crushing” counterattack if there was any retaliation.
A report from The Times of Israel, citing Channel 12 and the Kan public broadcaster, indicated that the IDF has “presented a list of targets” to Netanyahu and Gallant and that the leadership has decided which ones to attack. Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister assured US President Joe Biden that “he is willing to strike military rather than oil or nuclear facilities in Iran”, The Washington Post said, quoting sources with knowledge of the developments.
The US plans to “deploy a high-altitude anti-missile system and a military crew to Israel to help bolster that country’s air defences” after the Iran attack, with the Pentagon confirming that Biden “had ordered the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery and its crew be sent” to the Middle Eastern country, the BBC reported.
Fact or Fiction?
A reverse-image search using keyframes from the viral video led Soch Fact Check to a 15 September 2024 report by the news outlet المشهد المعاصر, which investigated the clip at a time when it was being linked on social media to a missile by Yemen’s Houthi group reaching central Israel.
We also came across X (erstwhile Twitter) posts by journalists Hossam ElHendy and Olga Robinson, both of whom said the video was unrelated and old. Taking cues from this, we searched for when the clip appeared in 2021 and found that it was published (archive) on Facebook by Mohammad Magadli, an Israeli news anchor associated with i24news.
We also found the video posted on Netanyahu’s official social media accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, and X. Uploaded on 13 December 2021, it was captioned, “אני תמיד גאה לרוץ בשבילכם. 🇮🇱💪🏻 צולם לפני חצי שעה בכנסת [I am always proud to run for you. 🇮🇱💪🏻 Taken half an hour ago in the Knesset]”.
At that time, the incumbent Israeli premier was an opposition leader and was heading to a vote in the Knesset, the country’s parliament, according to media reports, which added that the video was “recorded by his office staff” and the law “ultimately passed by a single vote”.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the viral video is unrelated to and predates Iran’s strike on Israel on 1 October 2024.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video shared here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook.
On X, it was shared with Urdu-language captions here, here, here, here, and here, with the last one being viewed over 114,000 times. It was posted alongside Arabic text here, here, here, and here.
The clip was also shared on Instagram here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The viral clip is actually from 2021 and shows Netanyahu running to the Israeli parliament to cast his vote for a then-proposed law. It is unrelated to Iran’s October 2024 attack on the Middle Eastern state.
Background image in cover photo: Netanyahu
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