Video shows restaurant fire in Tajikistan, not Iran's attack on Israel
- Published on July 1, 2025 at 09:30
- 3 min read
- By AFP Middle East & North Africa, AFP India
- Translation and adaptation Devesh MISHRA
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"Iran blew up Israel's Ministry of Home Affairs! Early this morning, Iran launched a missile attack on the Ministry of Home Affairs building located in Israel's capital Tel Aviv," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post shared on June 21, 2025.
The clip was shared on Facebook and X with similar claims.
The video surfaced after Israel fired missiles at Iranian nuclear and military facilities on June 13, while Iran retaliated with a barrage of missiles targeting Tel Aviv (archived link).
US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a truce that came into effect on June 24, which remains in place (archived link).
Iran's judiciary said at least 935 people were killed in the country during the war, while Iran's attacks on Israel killed 28 people, according to Israeli figures (archived link).
But the circulating video is unrelated to the recent exchange of fire between the two countries.
A reverse image search of the video's keyframes reveals a clip showing the same scene was posted on YouTube on June 19, 2025, with Tajik-language text giving the same date and the name of a city in northern Tajikistan, Khujand (archived link).
Google Street View imagery in the area also matches the scene in the false video (archived link).
Local media in Tajikistan reported on June 20 that the building was completely destroyed in the blaze (archived link).
Israel's government department responsible for domestic affairs is called the Ministry of Interior, not "Ministry of Home Affairs" as claimed in the false post (archived link).
AFP has debunked more misinformation related to the Iran-Israel conflict here.
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