Old video of Russia gas station blast falsely linked to Hezbollah attack on Israel
- Published on October 4, 2024 at 12:06
- 3 min read
- By AFP Malaysia
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"Massive destruction and displacement of residents in Haifa after a series of missiles fired by Hezbollah towards northern Israel," read a Malay-language X post shared on September 25, 2024.
The video shows people fleeing a huge blaze and plumes of smoke rising into the sky.
The post surfaced after approximately 180 projectiles and one unmanned aerial vehicle crossed into Israeli airspace on September 23 in various parts of the country's north, including Haifa, the army reported (archived link).
Hezbollah has traded almost daily cross-border fire with Israel since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.
The unprecedented attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,680 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.
The video racked up more than 370,000 views in X posts in languages including English, Arabic and Indonesian that falsely linked it to the conflict
Petrol station fire
A reverse image search on Google found the video posted on TikTok on June 15, 2021 -- years before the Israel-Hamas war erupted (archived link).
The Russian-language caption includes hashtags"#novosibirsk" -- referring to a city in northern Russia -- and "#gasstation".
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in false posts (left) and the TikTok video (right):
AFP confirmed the video was filmed in Novosibirsk by comparing it to Google Street View images from the city (archived link).
The gas station explosion was widely reported, including by BBC Russia and Russia's RIA Novosti news agency (archived here and here).
According to state-run news outlet Russia Today, the fire started while a car was being filled with petrol at one of the pumps (archived link).
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