Video from Yemen shared as 'recent Hezbollah attack on Israel'

What is the claim? 

A video of an explosion is circulating on social media to claim that it shows a Hezbollah attack at a petrochemical plant in Haifa, an Israeli city. The video shows a fireball exploding, with trucks moving around a roundabout in the foreground. 

The clip was shared by an X (formerly Twitter) user with the caption in Hindi, “Hezbollah attacks a petrochemical plant south of Haifa for the first time. Video is taken from inside occupied Palestine." The post has reached over 5,200 likes, 1,200 shares, and 1,29,000 views. Similar claims can be viewed here, here, and here. 

Screenshots of the video showing an explosion circulating on social media. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

The video surfaced amid escalating conflict between Israel and Lebanon, including the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah. Additionally, Hezbollah took responsibility for an October 23 drone attack on an Isareli military base in Haifa. 

However, we found that the viral video is misleading and actually shows an explosion due to an Israeli strike at the Al Hudaydah city in Yemen. 

What we found 

A reverse image search of frames from the video led us to an article by The Guardian published on September 30, 2024. Titled ‘Israel strikes port of Hodeidah in Yemen, causing large explosion—video,’ the post features a video montage with the first clip matching the now-viral video until the eight-second mark.

The report states that around four people were killed and over 30 injured in an Israeli strike on the port of Hodeidah (transliteration of Al Hudaydah) in Yemen. The report also quotes the Israeli military, which said it carried out airstrikes on the Houthi-controlled Yemeni Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, targeting the port and a power plant in the city. 

Screenshot of the Guardian article published on September 30 featuring the now-viral video. (Source: The Guardian)

The clash between Israel and Yemen-based Houthi rebels escalated over Yemen’s support for Palestinians. According to an Al Jazeera report, the Israeli air strikes in Al Hudaydah are the first (known) direct attack by Israel against the Houthis in Yemen since the start of the Middle East conflict. 

We also found the viral video in reports by international media outlets, including the BBC and CNN. The BBC, in its report, quoted an X post (archived here) by the Israeli Defense Force, which stated that the port and powerplants in Yemen were “used by the Houthis to transfer Iranian weapons to the region." 

Logically, Facts geolocated the triangular structure within the roundabout, which is visible in the viral video through Google Maps (archive here). It is a landmark named ‘Ibrahim Al-Sidum Triangle’ (translated from Arabic) near the Al Hudaydah port in Yemen.

This confirms that the video was not captured in Haifa but at the Al Hudaydah port in Yemen. 

The verdict 

The video shows an explosion in the Al Hudaydah port city in Yemen due to an Israeli strike, not a Hezbollah attack at a petrochemical plant in Israel’s Haifa city.