Video of ‘missiles hitting Tel Aviv’ is from Kyiv in 2023
Posts on Facebook claiming to show video of missiles hitting Tel Aviv, Israel, actually depict an air attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, in 2023.
The video, which appears to show a missile hitting a building and a large explosion at night, has been shared on Facebook with the caption: “The moment Yemeni missiles reached occupied Tel Aviv and hit their targets”.
But, as we have reported before, the clip is actually year-old footage from Kyiv, Ukraine. On 30 August 2023 two people were killed by the debris of intercepted Russian missiles falling on buildings, a park and a school, according to Ukrainians officials. A higher quality version of the clip with different audio was shared by the BBC with the caption: “Missile explodes over Kyiv”, as well as by several other media outlets.
The Israeli army has reported that missiles have been fired into the country by Houthi rebels from Yemen recently, but the video being shared online is unrelated to this conflict. The Houthis are an Iranian backed rebel group in Yemen who have fired missiles and drones towards Israel since the Gaza war began after Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, but most of these have been intercepted.
Miscaptioned videos are a common form of misinformation. We’ve seen lots of examples circulating online recently connected to the Israel-Gaza conflict, and wider conflict in the Middle East.
For advice about how to verify videos yourself, read our guide.
