Claim: Video shows Hezbollah’s missile attack on Israel amid the recent escalation of conflict between the two countries.
Fact: The video is unrelated and shows an explosion at a gas station in Aden, Yemen in August 2024.
On 22 September, X user @GNMadani shared a video (archive) apparently showing Hezbollah’s missile attacks on Israel. “Breaking news: Israel is on fire with Lebanon Hezbollah’s missile attacks,” the caption states when translated from Urdu and credits “Hebrew social media” as the source of this news. The post implies that the video shows an attack by Hezbollah which took place amid the recent escalation between Lebanon and Israel.
Israel has intensified its air attacks in southern Lebanon, claiming its attacks are aimed at Iran-backed Hezbollah. The strikes have killed at least 500 and displaced more than 90,000. In retaliation, Hezbollah launched missile attacks “directed at Israeli airbases.”
Beginning from 7 October 2023, the start of the Israel-Hamas war, up until 20 September 2024, “at least 10,214 attacks were exchanged between Israel and Hezbollah and other armed groups in Lebanon,” according Al Jazeera’s report which cited figures by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED).
Out of these, 8313 attacks were carried out by Israel, which killed at least 752 people in Lebanon, while Hezbollah and other armed groups were responsible for 1,901 attacks, killing at least 33 Israelis, the same report added.
Fact or Fiction?
When Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video, we initially found posts from August suggesting that it is from Yemen, and unrelated to the recent escalation between Israel and Lebanon.
A Google reverse-search brought up many posts on X. The third video from user @Kahlissee, shared on 31 August, included scenes which can be found in the video being fact-checked, especially the moment where we see a building ablaze in the background of a white car. Scenes from the first video shared in another X post on the same day, also match the video in the claim. According to both posts, the footage shows a massive fireball rising from the explosion that took place at a gas station in Yemen.
A further reverse-image search on TinEye then yielded a photo similar to the keyframes, but without any text superimposed on it.
We then reverse-searched this photo which led us to multiple results which also stated that it shows an explosion at a gas station in Yemen from August. “The loud blast, originating from a gas station, sent shockwaves through the densely populated district of Mansourah in Aden,” on 31 August, according to a report by MENAFN which carried a photo of the explosion exactly matching a keyframes from the video in question.
News reports published by Social News XYZ and Lokmat Times on the same gas explosion on 31 August also carried the exact image of the explosion, which confirmed that the video in question is not related to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict that intensified in September.
Virality
The X post garnered 18,800 views and was liked 1,500 times.
It was shared on X here, here, here, here, here.
One post carrying the same video on X claimed the attack took place in “central occupied Palestine.”
Conclusion: The video of an explosion circulating on X does not show Hezbollah’s missile attacks on Israel. It actually shows an explosion at a gas station in Aden, Yemen that took place in August 2024.
Background image in cover photo: BBC
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