Old videos from Iran's attack on Israel falsely linked to 2026 Mideast war
- Published on March 5, 2026 at 11:08
- 2 min read
- By Gemma CAHYA, Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Indonesia, AFP Thailand
Iran launched missiles on Israel in retaliation for a joint US-Israeli operation that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in February 2026, but clips circulating on social media do not show the aftermath of the attacks. They are in fact old videos filmed after Iran's missile barrage on Tel Aviv in June 2025.
"Severe damage reported in Tel Aviv after this morning's Iranian missile attack. 3/1/2026," reads an Indonesian-language Instagram post uploaded on March 1, 2026.
The attached video shows people walking on a dirt road surrounded by damaged low-rise buildings on both sides.
A Thai-language Facebook post shared a different video on March 2 showing rescuers near collapsed buildings with the same claim that it depicted "the latest damage from Tel Aviv" after an Iranian missile attack.
The posts spread in English, Arabic, Bosnian, Hindi, Spanish, and Croatian after Iran launched strikes in retaliation for the joint US-Israeli strike on February 28, 2026 that killed Khamenei (archived link).
An Iranian missile killed a woman in Tel Aviv on the day, the first confirmed fatality in Israel since attacks began (archived link).
Another strike the following day hit the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, killing at least nine people and leaving 11 missing, police said (archived link).
However, the circulating videos actually show the aftermath of Iran's strikes in 2025.
Old footage
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes found a clip published on June 23, 2025 showing the same scene in the first falsely shared video (archived link).
A video taken by AFP videographer Olivier Feniet on June 22, 2025 also shows the same damaged buildings, with a caption saying it was filmed at an impact site in Tel Aviv following fresh waves of Iranian missile strikes.
"Iran's armed forces said they targeted multiple sites in Israel including Ben Gurion airport, after US attacks on key nuclear sites," the caption goes on to say.
Another reverse image search using keyframes from the second false clip found identical visuals published by the BBC and Al Mayadeen on June 14, 2025 in reports saying they show the aftermath of an Iranian missile attack on Tel Aviv (archived links here and here).
An AFP photo taken on June 13, 2025 shows the same elements in the clips, including the building's facade, the heavily damaged white car and the debris leaning against the wall.
Israel launched a series of strikes against Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure in June 2025, reportedly killing several top commanders and scientists (archived link).
Iran retaliated with massive missile salvos that struck residential buildings and high-rises in the Tel Aviv area, leaving hundreds wounded and emergency crews scrambling to rescue civilians from the rubble (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misinformation linked to the war in the Middle East.
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