Old video of attack on Israeli city shared as explosion at Meron military base

What is the claim?

A video circulating on social media claims to show a massive fire engulfing the Meron military base in Israel. The clip surfaced after the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah reportedly attacked the Mount Meron area in northern Israel on July 7. Several users shared the video as footage of the recent attack.

One user shared the video, writing, “🔴🚨 BREAKING 🚨 Explosions and a massive fire engulfing the #Meron military base 🇮🇱.” Archived versions of such posts can be accessed here and here.

Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

The Times of Israel reported that Hezbollah attacked Mount Meron, near the Lebanon border, multiple times amid the recent escalation of tensions, launching rockets at the mountain and missiles at the nearby air traffic control base.

However, the claim is misleading. The viral video is not from the recent escalation of tensions and was captured after Hamas reportedly attacked the city of Ashdod in southern Israel on May 15, 2021.

How did we find the truth?

Reverse image searches on keyframes from the viral video showed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) (archive here) posted the video on May 15, 2021, stating that it was an attack on the city of Ashdod by Gaza. According to the IDF, the video shows the damage caused by one of the rockets fired at Ashdod.

The viral video is two seconds long and consists of two merged clips. The first clip is taken from approximately the 0:06-minute mark of the original video. The second clip is taken from the timeframe between the 0:01 and 0:02-minute marks of the video posted by the IDF.

The comparison below shows that the same person can be seen moving in one frame of both the viral and original videos.

A comparison between the viral video and the original video. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

Additionally, the same structures can be seen in both videos, as noted below.

A comparison between the viral video and the original video. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

Saudi-based news outlet Al Arabiya also published the clip in a longer video (archived here) on YouTube on May 15, 2021. The title of the video, written in Arabic, read, "Massive destruction as a result of rockets fired from Gaza on the city of Ashdod."

According to a report by Sky News dated May 15, 2021, both Israel and Palestine had carried out attacks on each other, causing damage in both countries. In Gaza City, 10 Palestinians, including eight children, died in an Israeli strike, while one Israeli individual was killed in a rocket attack near Tel Aviv. The report also carried a version of the video published by the IDF, captioned “Hamas rocket hits Israeli city.”

The verdict

An old video from 2021 is being shared as an incident from the recent attack on Israel by Hezbollah. The viral video reportedly shows the damage caused by an airstrike from Gaza on Ashdod in 2021. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.