Old video shared as recent Israel attack on Lebanon after pager explosions

What is the claim?

A video of an explosion seemingly captured from a moving vehicle has been shared with the claim that it shows Israel attacking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. The posts claim the attack took place a day after nine people were killed and more than 2,700 people were injured after handheld pagers exploded on Tuesday, September 17. 

An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the video and wrote, "BREAKING: Israeli fighter jets launch a wave of airstrikes hitting Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Missiles and radios, everything is exploding in Lebanon right now." The post had 3,200 likes and 722 retweets. An archive of similar posts is here and here. 

Screenshot of the social media post with viral video. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

The claim has emerged amid heightened tensions between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, as Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have accused Israel of carrying out the attack. 

A U.S. government-funded Arabic-language satellite TV channel, Alhurra, reports that Israel bombed several military facilities belonging to Hezbollah in the Jabin area of southern Lebanon on September 18, 2024. 

However, this video is from February 2024 and predates the pager explosions in Lebanon.

Here are the facts

Through reverse image search, we found the video was shared on YouTube by a Saudi news channel named AlHadath الحدث (archived here) on February 19, 2024. It was titled: "New footage shows moment Israel launches airstrikes near Lebanon's Sidon. (translated from Arabic)." 

Al Arabiya, another Saudi news channel, also shared the video (archived here) with a caption that translates to: "New footage shows the moment Israeli aircraft launched airstrikes on the Ghazieh district in Lebanon." 

This shows that the video was online before the pager explosions happened.

Lebanese TV channel Al Jadeed shared visuals of this explosion from a different angle on its website on February 19, 2024, with the title: "Video - Israeli raids target the outskirts of Sidon towards Ghazieh."

According to a report by RT Arabic, Israel claimed responsibility for the attack in Lebanon on February 19, 2024. The report adds that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) dropped bombs on two Hezbollah weapon storage facilities located near Sidon city. Israel had said that it was a retaliatory attack for the drone attack near the Sea of Galilee on February 19, 2024. 

The Times of Israel reports that a drone carrying explosives struck near the Sea of Galilee lake in Tiberias, Israel.

The recent explosions in Lebanon

Around 12 people have been killed so far, and nearly 3,000 were injured after thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah operatives exploded in parts of Beirut and other Hezbollah strongholds on Tuesday, September 17. 

A day later, handheld radios, or walkie-talkies, also exploded in a similar manner, and the Lebanese health ministry has said that 20 people were killed and 450 injured in this second incident. 

Lebanon and Hezbollah, as well as Iran, have all accused Israel of carrying out the attacks, but Israel has not commented so far. 

The verdict

A seven-month-old video of Israel bombing Lebanon has been falsely linked to the recent pager and walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon.