Old Yemen airstrike footage falsely linked to Middle East war in 2026

“Iran is hitting Israel hard… Bazan Group's power plant in Israel (sic),” reads the caption of a Facebook post published on March 12, 2026. 

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Screenshot showing the false post, taken March 18, 2026

The video shows what appears to be an industrial facility on fire, shrouded in a thick cloud of black smoke, overlaid with the text “Bazan Group's power plant in Haifa, Israel”.  

Shared more than 500 times, the clip was posted by a Nigerian page called “World Update”, which regularly publishes content on global events to its 30,000 followers. 

In a statement on March 12, 2026, the IRGC said it carried out a joint missile operation with its Lebanese ally Hezbollah against Israeli targets, hitting more than 50 sites, including military bases in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Beersheba (archived here).

War broke out in the Middle East on February 28, 2026, after coordinated US-Israeli strikes on Iran killed the country’s supreme leader since 1989, Ali Khamenei, alongside close family and other senior government officials (archived here). 

Iran responded by targeting US military installations in the region and other Gulf countries with ties to Washington (archived here and here).

However, the video does not show an Iranian attack on a power plant in Haifa. 

Yemen explosion 

Using Google Lens to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the footage, AFP Fact Check found the clip was published on Facebook on May 8, 2025 (archived here). 

“Sanaa power station #Urgent #Banned,” reads the caption in Arabic.

Further searches using keywords from the caption led to a post on the official Israeli Ministry of Defence account on X, stating that the Israeli army carried out airstrikes in the Sanaa region on May 6, 2025 (archived here).

Among the search results was an article published by The Jerusalem Post in which one of the targets was identified as the Hezyaz power generation station, south of Sanaa (archived here).

The IDF strikes followed claims by Yemen’s Houthi rebels that they had targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, as part of a broader campaign against Israel and Red Sea shipping since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023 (archived here).

Using Google Earth, AFP Fact Check geolocated the Hezyaz power plant. Aerial imagery shows features that match the claim video, including two rectangular buildings with small round rooftop structures, a standalone white building, and a structure fitted with chimneys (archived here). 

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Graphic comparing the footage from the false post (left) and the screenshot from Google Earth

Further analysis in Google Earth showed that the aerial view of the Bazan Group’s plant in Haifa is structurally different from that seen in the Facebook clip (archived here). 

On March 19, 2026, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said an Iranian missile strike hit the Haifa plant but caused no significant damage (archived here).

The same facility was targeted in June 2025, when an Iranian strike severely damaged a power unit supplying steam and electricity, forcing a temporary shutdown of operations (archived here).

AFP Fact Check debunked the claim in Arabic first.

Read more of our fact-checking work on the Middle East war here.