Old air strike photos falsely portrayed as 'Iran attacking Israel in January 2024'
- Published on January 30, 2024 at 09:15
- 4 min read
- By Tommy WANG, AFP Hong Kong
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"On the morning of January 21, 2024, Iran carried out a surprise attack on the southern Israeli city of Netivot with a strike, and while a large number of rockets were intercepted, many still hit their targets, leaving the scene in a state of disarray," reads a Chinese-language post shared on Baidu on January 21, 2024.
"Casualties are unknown at this time," the post adds. It features two pictures of buildings destroyed by explosions and another one showing rockets being fired.
Similar posts have also been shared elsewhere on Baidu and on Weibo.
The claim surfaced as Israel continues its blistering offensive in Gaza, where the death toll reached over 26,600, around 70 percent of the dead women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.
The offensive began in response to the unprecedented attack by Hamas fighters on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Western governments have been eager to avoid any widening of the Gaza war to the entire Middle East, which could risk pulling in major regional power Iran.
Iran supports Hamas, Hezbollah and Huthi rebels in Yemen -- a so-called "axis of resistance" of Israel's enemies. But as of January 30, Iran has not become directly involved in the Gaza war.
There is no evidence the purported attack described in the posts actually happened, according to AFP journalists in Israel.
Misused photos
Moreover, the photos shared in the false posts are old and have been misused.
A combination of keyword and reverse image searches on Google found the photo showing a cluster of buildings on fire was earlier published by the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) on July 29, 2014 (archived link).
Its caption says: "Smoke rises from Tuffah neighbourhood after Israeli air strikes in the east of Gaza City, 29 July 2014. Violence escalated overnight, as Israel renewed intense airstrikes on Gaza in response to barrages of Palestinian rockets after an attempted unofficial truce for the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday crumbled."
Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the false posts (left) and the original photo published on EPA's website (right):
The other photo showing a massive explosion was published by Reuters news agency on October 18, 2014 (archived link).
Its caption reads: "Smoke rises over Syrian town of Kobani after an airstrike, as seen from the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, October 18, 2014."
The report containing the photo says coalition jets led by the United States struck suspected Islamic State targets in Kobani town that day.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the false posts (left) and the original photo from Reuters (right):
The third photo, which shows multiple rocket launchers firing, appears in an April 19, 2017 post on social media platform X, published by the Russian Defence Ministry (archived link).
The Russian-language caption of the photo translates as: "An Uragan multiple rocket launcher battery firing during live firing at a training range in the Central Military District #CMD."
The photo can also be found in an article published by the Russian Defence Ministry's official site (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the false posts (left) and the original photo published on Russian Defence Ministry's verified X account (right):
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