Old footage of brawl at Israeli cinema misrepresented as commotion at Tel Aviv airport

"Breaking: Clashes now at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv," reads a Facebook post shared on March 12. "'We want tickets, we want flights, we want to leave Israel. We will not stay until Iranian missiles crush us.'"

The attached video shows two groups of people hurling objects at each other across a counter.

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Screenshot of the false post taken on March 19, 2026 with a red X added by AFP

Iranian forces retaliated against Israel and several Gulf states hosting US interests with missile and drone strikes after a joint US-Israeli attack killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28 (archived link).

Israel closed its airspace on the day, while international airlines announced they would suspend flights to the region, including Israel (archived here and here).

Some Israeli airlines have subsequently resumed some flights under strict security conditions. Israel's transport ministry also announced on March 16 it wanted to increase the number of passengers allowed to travel from Ben Gurion, depending on security guidelines.

Flights were disrupted again after the Israeli military said on March 18 "debris" had hit Ben Gurion international airport following Iranian missile fire, without specifying when the incident had occurred. Flag carrier El Al then announced it would suspend flights to dozens of destinations for a week later in the month. 

While the false claim has spread elsewhere on Facebook and Instagram, it is in fact unrelated to the war in the Middle East. 

A reverse image search using keyframes found a video of the same scene from another angle shared on July 20, 2025 in an X post that says it shows a commotion at a cinema in Jerusalem (archived link).

News outlet Al Araby TV also published a video report on the same day, adding that the clip was taken at the Cinema City in Jerusalem, and three staff members were injured (archived link). 

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Screenshot comparison of the false video (L) and the Al Araby TV clip

A photo published on Google Maps in 2023 of the cinema shows many of the same elements in the false video, including the staircase in the background, the yellow ceiling, and the counters (archived link). 

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Screenshot comparison of the false post images (L, C) and the Google Maps image

Israeli media organisations Israel National News and The Times of Israel reported on the fight on the day, saying dozens of youths attacked workers in "an anti-Arab riot" for refusing to reopen the refreshment kiosk after closing time (archived here and here).

AFP has debunked a wave of misinformation related to the Middle East war.   

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