Old videos from Iran’s attack on Israel falsely linked to 2026 Mideast war
Iran launched missiles at Israel in retaliation for a joint U.S.-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 those attacks. These are in fact old videos shot after the Iranian missile barrage on Tel Aviv in June 2025.
“Serious damage has been reported in Tel Aviv following this morning’s Iranian missile attack. 03/01/2026,” 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 described “the latest damage to Tel Aviv” after an Iranian missile attack.
Screenshots of the fake posts, taken on March 4, 2026, with red crosses added by AFP
Messages are broadcast in English, Arabic, Bosnian, HindiSpanish 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 that day, the first confirmed death in Israel since the attacks began (archived link).
The next day, another strike hit the town of Beit Shemesh in central Israel, killing at least nine people and leaving 11 missing, police said (archived link).
However, the videos circulating actually show the consequences of the Iranian strikes in 2025.
Old images
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes found a clip posted 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 new waves of Iranian missile strikes.
“Iranian armed forces said they targeted several sites in Israel, including Ben Gurion Airport, after US attacks on key nuclear sites,” the caption continues.
Screenshot comparison of the fake post (L) and the AFP video, with the same elements highlighted
Another reverse image search using keyframes from the second fake clip found identical visuals posted by the BBC and Al Mayadeen on June 14, 2025 in reports claiming they show the aftermath of an Iranian missile attack on Tel Aviv (archived links here and here).
Screenshot comparison between the fake Facebook post (left) and the video shared by the BBC
An AFP photo taken on June 13, 2025 shows the same elements in the clips, including the facade of the building, the heavily damaged white car and debris leaning against the wall.
Screenshot comparison between the fake video (left) and the AFP photo, with the same elements highlighted by AFP
Israel launched a series of strikes against Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure in June 2025, killing several senior commanders and scientists (archived link).
Iran responded with massive salvos of missiles that hit residential buildings and high-rise buildings in the Tel Aviv area, leaving hundreds injured and emergency teams rushing to rescue civilians from the rubble (archived link).
The AFP has denied other misinformation linked to the war in the Middle East.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-1020250788-e2e662e75eab4b44a097eb1cc65987f9.jpg?w=390&resize=390,220&ssl=1 "Turning Over a New Leaf—A Lesson From Trees in Embracing Change")