Last weekend, Iran attacked Israel militarily. The Iranian military fired around 300 rockets, cruise missiles and drones at Israel on the night of Saturday to Sunday. The Lebanese Hezbollah militia and the Yemeni Houthi rebels, both of whom are close to the mullahs’ regime in Tehran, also fired rockets at Israel.
However, the assessment and classification of the military operation varies greatly. Both sides use dubious images to document their point of view.
Claim: “This attack shows the true colors of Iran,” says the final sequence of a video that the Israeli Defense Forces on X, formerly Twitter, have posted. The video and screenshots from it – similar to those seen below – have been widely shared on social media spread.
DW fact check: Incorrect.
The Israeli army documented Iran’s drone attack on Israel in several video clips and edited some of them together into the video in question. The British fact checker Shayan Sardarizadeh comes to the conclusion that the majority of the clips are real and come from April 14th. But the last shot is probably ten years old, says Sardarizadeh on X.
This part of the video does not show Iran’s recent missile attack on IsraelImage: IDF/X
One Reverse image search DW Fact Check showed that this setting had already been used several times in Russian news broadcasts for different scenarios from the Ukrainian war. We have not checked whether this is the origin of the sequence. However, we can confirm what a user also wrote under the IDF post: The mentions go back to 2014.
Air defense of a Hamas attack
claim: Another video that appears to have been filmed from a high-rise building shows a city in darkness. It is intended to show the defense against the Iranian air attack. Countless lights fly across the night sky and explode in an explosion. The video and individual images (stills) from it were published Tiktok, Instagram and Youtube divided.
DW fact check: Incorrect.
We downloaded the video and searched for individual images from it in search engines. The oldest entries under which we found it are from October 11, 2023. Both the British tabloid Daily Mail as well as Hananya Naftalian Israeli political influencer with ties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, published it at the time.
Accordingly, the video actually shows how the Israeli air defense system “Iron Dome” intercepts rockets. However, according to both sources, this was an attack by the militant Islamist Hamas, whose rockets are technologically far less developed than Iran’s weapons and, for example, have no guidance function whatsoever. Many countries, including Germany, the USA and the EU, classify Hamas, as well as the military wing of Hezbollah, as terrorist organizations.
Although this video shows Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system repelling a missile attack, it is from October 2023Image: X/HananyaNaftali
According to various sources, Israel, together with partner states such as the USA, France and Great Britain, largely repelled the attack. Jordan, with which Israel has diplomatic relations but not a military partnership, also destroyed some of the drones over its own territory. According to army spokesman Daniel Hagari, “99 percent” of the projectiles were intercepted.
Not only the Iron Dome missile defense system was used, but also Arrow III, which is suitable for defense at greater distances, and fighter jets.
According to Israeli information, only a few ballistic missiles hit Israeli territory. 31 people were injured and minor property damage was caused, including at an Israeli air force base.
Social media posts celebrate Iranian airstrike
While Israel’s government celebrates the defense of the drone attack, the regime in Tehran is keen to portray the attack as a success against its arch-enemy Israel. Numerous posts on social media echo this claim. However, they also back these up with false videos that have been taken out of their true context.
Claim: “Israel is burning | The time for Israel to disappear from the world map is very close.” (English: Israel is burning | The time when Israel will disappear from the world map is very close.) This is what one claims X-Account and posts a video with several explosions – presumably also filmed from one of the upper floors of a high-rise building. Several fireballs light up the night one after the other, clouds of smoke billow towards the sky.
DW fact check: Incorrect.
“Israel is burning,” the post says. The video is older and probably shows a Ukrainian air raid on the port city of Sevastopol on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula on March 24th of this yearImage: X
Here too, the reverse image search brought us onto an older track. Several entries link the same video to a Ukrainian airstrike on the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula on March 24 this year.
Sea Daily Mail It shows the destruction of two Russian warships in the harbor of the city of Sevastopol. As part of this fact check, we did not further examine whether this is actually the case. However, we can note that the video was recorded at least three weeks before the Iranian airstrike.