Old video falsely claimed to show recent Israeli strikes on Iran

Published on June 18, 2025 at 15:18
3 min read
By AFP Middle East & North Africa
Translation and adaptation Edie TWELLS EASTWOOD

At dawn on June 13, Israel launched a series of extensive air strikes on Iran that hit nuclear and military sites across the country and killed several senior military commanders. Shortly after, a video shared on social media claimed to show Israeli missiles falling on Tehran. However, this is false; the video was first published more than eight months ago and shows an Iranian strike on Israel.

“Scenes of Israeli missiles falling on the Iranian capital, Tehran,” reads the caption on a video published on Facebook on June 13, shortly after Israel launched air strikes on Iran.

The post was shared more than 40 times before it was deleted.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post

The video appears to show rockets falling from the sky, identified by a red flash and rising smoke.

Israel’s strikes on June 13, 2025, killed the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Mohammad Bagheri, and senior Revolutionary Guards commanders Hossein Salami and Gholam Ali Rashid (archived here).

According to Iranian media, top nuclear scientists were also killed.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the attack (archived here).

“We carried out a very successful opening strike,” he said in a video message. “We have hit the senior command, we have hit senior scientists who are promoting the development of atomic bombs, we have hit nuclear facilities.”

Explosions were reported across the city of Tehran throughout the morning of June 13.

Subsequent Israeli attacks have since killed Iran’s top military commander, Ali Shadmani, the closest figure to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (archived here).

Iran has retaliated by launching several waves of missiles at Israel (archived here).

However, the claim that the Facebook video shows a recent Israeli air strike is false.

Old footage

Using the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify, we conducted a reverse image search on keyframes from the video. This revealed that the same footage was previously posted online more than eight months ago.

The video was published by several local and international media outlets (here, here, and here), which described it as showing an Iranian strike on Israel that took place on October 1, 2024 (archived here, here, and here).

The strike targeted several Israeli airbases including Nevatim, one of Israel’s largest bases (archived here).

Satellite image from October 2, 2024 showing Israel's Nevatim airbase damaged by Iranian strikes on Oct 1, 2024 (AFP / Valentina BRESCHI, Olivia BUGAULT)

On October 1, 2024, Iran fired approximately 180 rockets into Israel (archived here) in response to the killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, and the Iranian commander of the Quds Force in Lebanon, Abbas Nilvoroshan – all attributed to Israel.

AFP Fact Check has previously debunked other claims relating to the same video, including the claim that it shows a Pakistani missile attack on India.

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