Social media posts about Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel on April 13, 2024, swirled with a dramatic video compilation of explosions and panicked crowds fleeing the streets. In fact, the clips were all filmed before Tehran attacked. The footage shows an explosion in Lebanon, cars blackened by forest fires in Chile and people reacting to a gas explosion in Japan. Another clip from the compilation was shared in news reports about an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon in December 2023.
“Look at the situation in Israel,” reads a Facebook post in Urdu shared on April 14, 2024.
The video, which has been viewed more than 4.8 million times, shows a compilation of clips – an explosion near a highway, a cloud of smoke rising from a road, charred cars on a road and people emerging from one filled with rubble fleeing the littered city street.
The footage is overlaid with the sounds of gunshots, screams and sirens.
The video was also shared on YouTube and TikTok following Iran’s first direct attack on Israel on April 13, 2024.
The drone and missile attack was in response to Israel’s deadly attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus and followed months of violence across the region involving Iranian proxies who said they were supporting Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
However, the clips have nothing to do with Iran’s attack.
Explosion on the highway
The first clip of the video compilation shows thick black smoke rising into the sky near a highway.
A reverse image search found a longer version of the video posted on Instagram, showing the explosion and then cutting to a group of men sweeping up glass (archived link).
The video was released on February 19, 2024 – weeks before Iran’s attack.
On 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 gets hurt, we don’t care. Israel will disappear.”
An AFP journalist in Beirut confirmed that the man spoke a southern Lebanese dialect.
According to the man’s Instagram bio, he is the owner of Shamseddine Supermarket in Ghaziyeh.
Other videos posted on his Instagram show the highway seen in the video (archived link).
The Lebanese national flag – in red, white and green – can also be seen on the highway.
Smoky street
The second clip shows people fleeing while a cloud of smoke rises at the end of a street.
A reverse image search found the video, which was published on December 5, 2023 by various news outlets, including Israeli news site Maariv and Lebanese news site 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 the fake post (left) and the video published by Maariv (right):
An AFP journalist in Beirut confirmed that the license plate of a white BMW seen in the video is registered in Sidon, southern Lebanon.
Although the video was made before Iran’s attack on Israel in April 2024, AFP could not independently confirm when and where it was filmed.
Charred cars
The third clip shows dozens of burned vehicles on a street.
A reverse image search on Google found a photo showing a similar scene in a February 3, 2024 article about wildfires in Chile (archived link).
The infernos claimed at least 133 lives and destroyed around 7,000 houses around the coastal town of Viña del Mar in Chile’s coastal region of Valparaiso (archived link).
A keyword search found similar footage of the vehicles in a report published on February 4, 2024 by the Chilean news site Meganoticias (archived link).
According to the report, the footage shows cars in Villa Independencia, a neighborhood in Viña del Mar.
Similarities between the video in fake posts (below left) and Meganoticias’ video (right), such as a power pole, trees and a truck, confirm that they were filmed in the same location.
AFP also published a photo from the crime scene.
Panic street
The fourth clip shows people fleeing a city street littered with rubble.
A reverse image search on Google found the video posted on TikTok on July 11, 2023 (archived link).
Text superimposed on the clip reads: “Just another day in Japan.”
Visual features in the video also indicate that it was filmed in Japan, such as Japanese-language signs and a sign for a restaurant called Oh! Toro kitchen.
Google Street View images of the Oh! The Toro Kitchen restaurant in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district corresponds to the restaurant shown in the video (archived link).
A gas explosion reportedly occurred at a restaurant in Shinbashi on July 3, 2023, injuring at least four people (archived link).