A dramatic video compilation of explosions and panicked crowds fleeing the streets swirled in social media posts about Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel on April 13, 2024. However, the clips were in fact all filmed before Tehran’s assault. The footage shows a blast in Lebanon, cars blackened by forest fires in Chile and people reacting to a gas explosion in Japan. Another clip in the compilation was shared in news reports about an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon in December 2023.
“Look at the situation in Israel,” read an Urdu-language Facebook post shared on April 14, 2024.
The video, which attracted more than 4.8 million views, shows a compilation of clips — a blast near a highway, a cloud of smoke rising from a street, charred cars on a road and people fleeing a city street littered with debris.
The footage is overlaid with audio of gunfire, screams and sirens.
The video was also shared on YouTube and TikTok following Iran’s first direct assault on Israel on April 13, 2024.
The drone and missile attack was in response to Israel’s deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus and followed months of violence across the region involving Iranian proxies who say they are acting in support of Palestinians in the war-battered Gaza Strip.
However, the clips are unrelated to Iran’s attack.
Highway blast
The first clip in the video compilation shows thick black smoke rising to the sky near a highway.
A reverse image search found a longer version of the video posted on Instagram, which shows the explosion and then cuts to a group of men sweeping up glass (archived link).
The video was posted on February 19, 2024 — weeks before Iran’s attack.
That day, Israeli strikes hit Ghaziyeh in southern Lebanon.
One of the men in the video says in Arabic: “Thank God, as long as no one is injured, we don’t care. Israel will go away.”
An AFP journalist in Beirut confirmed the man spoke with a southern Lebanese dialect.
According to the man’s Instagram bio, he is the owner of the Shamseddine Supermarket in Ghaziyeh.
Other videos posted on his Instagram show the highway seen in the video (archived link).
The Lebanese national flag — with red, white and green colours — can also be seen displayed on the highway.
Smoky street
The second clip shows people fleeing as a cloud of smokes rises at the end of a street.
A reverse image search found the video published by various news outlets on December 5, 2023, including Israeli news site Maariv and Lebanon’s Bintjbeil (archived here and here).
Maariv reported that the footage showed an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip in false post (left) and the video published by Maariv (right):
An AFP journalist in Beirut confirmed that the licence plate on a white BMW seen in the video is registered in Sidon in southern Lebanon.
While the video predates Iran’s attack on Israel in April 2024, AFP was unable to independently confirm when and where it was filmed.
Charred cars
The third clip shows dozens of burned vehicles on a road.
A reverse image search on Google found a photo showing a similar scene in an article from February 3, 2024 about forest fires in Chile (archived link).
The infernos claimed the lives of at least 133 people and destroyed some 7,000 homes around the coastal town of Viña del Mar in Chile’s coastal Valparaiso region (archived link).
A keyword search found similar footage of the vehicles in a report published by Chilean news site Meganoticias on February 4, 2024 (archived link).
According to the report, the footage shows cars in Villa Independencia, which is a neighbourhood in Viña del Mar.
Similarities between the video in false posts (below-left) and Meganoticias’ video (right), such as an electricity pylon, trees and a truck, confirm they were filmed in the same location.
AFP also published a photo from the scene.
Panicked street
The fourth clip shows people fleeing a city street littered with debris.
A reverse image search on Google found the video posted on TikTok on July 11, 2023 (archived link).
Text overlaid on clip says: “Just another day in Japan.”
Visual features in the video also indicate it was filmed in Japan, such as Japanese-language signs and a sign for a restaurant called Oh! Toro Kitchen.
Google Street View imagery of the Oh! Toro Kitchen restaurant in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district corresponds to the restaurant seen in the video (archived link).
A gas explosion reportedly ripped through a restaurant in Shinbashi on July 3, 2023, injuring at least four people (archived link).
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