Video shows Jerusalem attack in 2017, not 'truck ramming Israeli troops in Tel Aviv'

Warning: Graphic footage

"The moment of the 'Kamikaze Truck' attack in front of the Mossad headquarters and Unit 8200 in northern Tel Aviv," read an Indonesian-language X post shared on October 27.

The post, which racked up more than 168,000 views, contains grainy footage appearing to show a truck slamming into a group of people. A crowd nearby can be seen running for cover.

"In this attack, at least five soldiers were killed, and 50 others were injured, with at least 10 in critical condition," it added.

The post surfaced after a driver rammed his truck into a crowd at a bus stop in a city near Israel's commercial hub Tel Aviv, killing a man and injuring more than two dozen people (archived link).

Police did not immediately say whether the incident, near the Mossad spy agency's headquarters and other Israeli intelligence sites, was an attack or an accident.

But they added that civilians at the scene "shot the truck driver and neutralised him".

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Screenshot of the false X post, captured on October 31, 2024

Palestinian militant group Hamas, in a statement, said the "heroic ramming attack" was "in response to the crimes committed by the Zionist occupation" against Palestinians.

There have been several attacks in Israel carried out by Palestinian militants since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7, 2023.

The war was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel that day, which resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 people abducted, 97 are still being held in Gaza, and 34 have been declared dead by the Israeli army.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 43,000 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

The footage was circulated by X accounts with thousands of followers in posts here and here that falsely claimed it showed the Tel Aviv truck ramming.

The footage, however, shows a different truck ramming years earlier in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem attack

Reverse image searches using keyframes from the video found it in reports by The Jerusalem Post newspaper and Israeli news website Ynet from January 8, 2017 (archived here and here).

The Jerusalem Post's report is headlined: "Video: Security camera captures deadly Jerusalem truck attack". It said the video showed an attack at the Armon Hanatziv observation post in Jerusalem.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared video (left) and The Jerusalem Post video (right):

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Screenshot comparison between the falsely shared video (left) and The Jerusalem Post video (right)

Google Street View images confirmed the video was filmed at the Tayelet Haas Promenade in Jerusalem -- close to the Armon Hanatziv observation post (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the footage in false posts (left) and Google Street View imagery (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP:

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Screenshot comparison between the footage used in the false posts (left) and Google Street View imagery (right)

Four Israeli soldiers were killed and 17 wounded when the truck rammed into a group visiting the popular tourist spot in Jerusalem known for its picturesque views (archived link).

The driver, which Palestinian security officials identified as a Palestinian in his late 20s from east Jerusalem, was also killed at the scene.

The attack was condemned by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations envoy for the Middle East peace process.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the most difficult issues in the conflict. The Palestinians see east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and later annexed, as the capital of their future state while Israel views the whole city as its capital.

AFP has debunked other false claims related to the conflict in the Middle East here.