Claim: A video shows destruction in Israel after the recent missile attack by Iran.
Fact: The first 14 seconds of the video are unrelated, and actually show a football-related celebration in Algeria from September 2023. However, the rest of the clip shows Iranian missiles landing in Israel on 1 October 2024.
On 2 October 2024, a Facebook user uploaded a video of Israel being attacked by Iran’s recent attack, with the following caption:
“Iran is sending flower’s[sic] to Isr@el 😩❤️💥
#Iran🇮🇷♥️🔥”
The first 14 seconds of the video show what appear to be buildings on fire. This can be seen below:
After the 14 second mark, the video shifts to clips of what appear to be recorded instances of Iranian missiles striking Israel. Keyframes of these clips are shown below:
On 1 October 2024, Iran launched an aerial attack on Israel, consisting of a barrage of 180 missiles.
According to the X (formerly Twitter) account of the Iranian military, the attack was launched in response to, “the assassinations of martyr Heniyeh, martyr Nasrallah, and martyr Nilfroushan.” These refer to the Chairman of the Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh, Secretary General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, and Iranian Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan.
Nasrallah and Nilforoushan were killed in an Israeli strike on Lebanon on 27 September 2024. Haniyeh was killed on 31 July 2024 in Iran, reportedly by a missile strike, but the Israeli army has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found that the first 14 seconds of the video are from Algeria, not Israel. They show fireworks in the city of Algiers during football-related celebrations.
In 2023, right after the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas militants, this video from Algeria circulated on social media with the claim that it showed the destruction in Gaza as a result of Israeli airstrikes.
AFP conducted a fact check on the claim (archive) posted on X (formerly Twitter) on 9 October 2023, just two days after the 7 October attack. The video shows the same bird’s eye view of large clouds of smoke and a red-hued skyline as the first 14 seconds of the video in question.
The AFP noted that iterations of this video displayed the TikTok username “ramiguerfi41.” Though the video does not appear on this user’s TikTok account, a Google keyword search by the AFP revealed that this user had posted the video on TikTok and “AFP reporters in Brazil confirmed the user originally posted the footage September 27, 2023 — more than a week before Hamas’s attack.”
Though a Google search conducted by Soch Fact Check on 4 October 2024 using the same keywords as the AFP (“Rami Ramos @ramiguerfi41”) does not yield the same results, it still revealed an archived version of the post dated 28 September 2023.
Furthermore, Politifact conducted a fact-check on 13 October 2023 on a Facebook video (now deleted) which showed the same red-hued scenes atop buildings. Politifact narrowed down their search for the source of the video to ramiguerfi41 as well. They noted that another user shared the video by ramiguerfi41 on TikTok on 2 October 2023, days before the attack on Israel on 7 October.
The virality of this video also caught the eye of Reuters in 2023, who “confirmed the location of the video using satellite imagery to be Algiers, Algeria, not Gaza.” Reuters further noted how the red-hued scenes in the video were very similar to certain football celebrations in Algiers that had taken place in August 2020 and July–August 2023.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that this video has now resurfaced with the false claim that it shows destruction in Israel after the attack by Iran on 1 October 2024.
Here is a comparison of keyframes from the first 14 seconds of the video on Facebook (left) and those of the celebrations in Algeria from August 2023 (right):
The first 14 seconds of the video uploaded to Facebook do not show Israel. All evidence points towards it showing football-related celebrations in Algiers, Algeria.
After the 14 second mark, however, the video shows footage of the Iranian attack on Israel on 1 October 2024 that matches the keyframes of videos uploaded on X by Al Jazeera. This is shown below, with a comparison of the video on Facebook (to the left) with the one on X (to the right).
The keyframes of the video on Facebook also matched the video showing Iran firing missiles into Israel, uploaded on X by Middle East Eye. A comparison of the two is shown below:
Soch Fact Check hence rates this video from Facebook as misleading. Its first 14 seconds show football-related celebrations from Algiers, Algeria, not the destruction in Israel after Iran’s attack on 1 October 2024. However, the rest of the video does show footage of the attack by Iran.
Virality
The video was shared with the misleading claim on multiple social media platforms.
On Instagram, it can be found here, here, and here.
On YouTube, it can be found here and here.
On X, it can be found here.
On Facebook, it can be found here.
Conclusion: The video on Facebook shows football-related celebrations in Algiers, Algeria during the first 14 seconds. It does not show Israel after the attack by Iran on 1 October 2024. Only after the 14 second mark, does the video show footage of the actual attack.
—
Background image in cover photo: Jerusalem Post
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com