Old video of Mexico explosion falsely shared as Israel-Hamas war footage
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 28, 2023 at 12:14
- Updated on December 29, 2023 at 07:36
- 3 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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"Palestine vs Israel is getting heated, is this a sign that World War III is happening?" says an Indonesian-language text overlaid on a video posted on TikTok on October 26, 2023.
The one-minute video, which has racked up more than 148,000 views, shows an explosion and a thick smoke billowing high to the sky.
The video has been viewed more than 63,000 times after it circulated alongside a similar claim on TikTok here, here and here, and on video-sharing app SnackVideo here and here.
The posts appeared weeks after the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,140 people -- mostly civilians -- and taking about 250 hostages, according to the latest official Israeli figures.
Israel's relentless bombardment and ground offensive have killed more than 21,000 people -- mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry .
However, the video has been shared in false context. It actually shows an explosion at a fireworks market in Mexico in 2016, years before the Israel-Hamas war.
Mexico market blast
A reverse image search on Yandex, followed by a keyword search on Google, found a slightly longer video posted by video-licensing agency Storyful on YouTube on December 20, 2016 (archived link).
The video is titled: "Dramatic video shows fireworks explosion at market in Tultepec, Mexico."
The clip in the false posts has been horizontally flipped.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the false video (left), the false video flipped horizontally (centre) and the genuine video from Storyful (right):
The video was also published in reports about the fireworks market explosion by UK newspaper The Guardian and American broadcaster CBS News on the same day (archived links here and here).
According to the news reports, the blast at the San Pablito market, just north of Mexico City, killed at least 31 people and injured 70 others.
Geolocation on Google Maps confirmed the video was taken in Avenida Joaquin Montenegro, a street in Tultepec located near the San Pablito market (archived link).
A Google Street View image of the area dated October 2015 -- more than a year before the blast incident -- shows same landmarks seen in the video.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the Google Street View imagery (right), with corresponding features marked by AFP:
AFP has previously debunked various false claims related to the Israel-Hamas war here.
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