Israeli Air Force shares footage of air strikes in Gaza, misattributing it to Lebanon

Context

On October 17, 2023, the Israeli Air Force posted a video on X. It consists of a compilation of clips, each showing a number of sites being targeted with aerial bombardment. Providing context, the Air Force stated, “A short while ago, the IAF struck terror targets and military infrastructure of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon, in response to fire yesterday (Monday) towards Israel.”

Tensions along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon have been steadily increasing recently. Following the outbreak of conflict in Gaza and southern Israel, Israeli forces and militants affiliated with Hezbollah have repeatedly exchanged fire, sparking concerns about a potential spread of violence across the wider region.

While Israel has targeted sites in Lebanon recently, Logically Facts has determined that the video shared by the Israeli Air Force does not show operations conducted following attacks on Monday and contains footage recorded in Gaza.

In fact

A review of the content shared by the Israeli Air Force reveals that the same clip was shared by the same account on October 15, with the caption, “The Commander of the Hamas Southern District of National Security was killed; The IAF continues wide-scale strikes on Hamas military targets in the northern Gaza Strip IAF fighter jets, helicopters, and aircraft are continuing to strike terror targets in the Gaza Strip.”

As this video was shared on October 15, it is not possible that it shows operations carried out in response to the actions of Hezbollah on October 16, as claimed by the Air Force.

While Logically Facts could not geolocate all of the locations shown in this video, a volunteer with Geoconfirmed was able to locate two of them shortly after this clip was first shared. The volunteer, who shared their work on X via the account @ghost_watcher1, located the first clip in the compilation to a site in the center of the city of Gaza. Another clip, shown 30 seconds into the video, was located in Izbat Beit Hanoun, a town in the north of Gaza. Logically Facts has reviewed these sites using Google Earth to confirm these geolocations.

The verdict

This video does not show the Israeli Air Force targeting sites in Lebanon in response to violence that occurred on October 16. The video was circulating prior to October 16, and at least two of the sites shown have been confirmed to be in Gaza, not Lebanon. This claim has therefore been marked as misleading.