In the early morning hours of April 19, an apparent Israeli airstrike targeted a major air base and nuclear site in Iran. The strike came nearly a week after Iran’s defense forces sent a barrage of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles toward Israel.
In a matter of hours, a video shared across social media went viral with claims it shows an attack from Israel.
“Live now Israel’s response to [Iranian flag emoji],” text on top of the video says.
The roughly one-minute video shows a handful of different clips. Some of the clips show large-scale explosions. Others are more subtle, like one clip that shows smoke billowing in the distance.
Some people in the comments have claimed the dramatic scenes are not from Iran.
THE QUESTION
Does the viral video show an attack from Israel on Iran?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, the viral video doesn’t show an attack from Israel on Iran. The viral video is a compilation of different clips, which don’t match the details of the attack or predate the April 19 strike.
WHAT WE FOUND
This video doesn’t show the April 19 strike on Iran, which was reported near a military base in Isfahan. Most of the clips seen in the viral video predate the April 19 Israeli strike and weren’t even taken in Iran.
Using video forensics tool inVid, VERIFY split the video into individual keyframes and conducted reverse image searches of each keyframe.
The first six seconds of the video match what can be seen in the first frames of this Instagram video dated March 13, which is more than a month before the April 19 strike on Iran.
From seven to 22 seconds into the video, people can be seen standing around a large fire.
It’s unknown what caused the fire in the video, but the same video clip can be seen in this YouTube video posted on April 17. According to text on the YouTube video, the footage is from Jan. 16, 2024, though VERIFY was not able to confirm that. The same man in a green shirt and another man in a brown shirt standing with his arms on his hips can be seen in both videos.
From 23 to 33 seconds into the viral video, smoke can be seen billowing from down a street.
VERIFY reverse image searched those frames and found this video posted to X on April 13. This post, written in Arabic and translated to English using Google Translate, says the video was taken “after an armored car belonging to a Lebanese person was detonated with an explosive device in Al-Huda Square in Mezzeh, Damascus.”
The original video has the branding of HashtagSyria.com. A full report about the armored car bombing can be found here.
VERIFY could not independently confirm the portion of the viral video from 34 to 40 seconds that shows a plane dropping what appears to be parachutes. But what can be seen in the video doesn’t align with news reports of the apparent Israeli strike on Iran, which happened overnight or into the early morning hours of April 19. This portion of the video was filmed during the day.
From 55 seconds to the end of the video, a building can be seen burning.
VERIFY reverse image searched those frames and found this video posted four days before the strike on Iran. The same buildings, fire and smoke can be seen in both videos.
In addition to using these video forensics tools to VERIFY this video didn’t show the strikes on the military base in Iran, we also took a look at the area where witnesses reported hearing the strike.
BBC News published this video on X that was taken by a member of the “BBC audience.” The post was written in Persian and translated to English using Google Translate. The X post says an explosion and defensive bullets could be seen “from the direction of the 8th Shekari Air Base, which is next to Isfahan International Airport outside of this city.”
The area near the airport appears to be mostly desert terrain and desolate. All of the video clips seen in the viral video shared with the false claim that it shows Israel’s strike on Iran were taken from dense areas in cities.
Additionally, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said there was “no damage” to Iran’s nuclear sites that were targeted in the attack, which contrasts with the fire and explosions in the viral video.
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