Lighthouse Journalism found a video being widely shared on social media platforms. The video claimed to show a ballistic missile attack on Israel’s Haifa Power Plant by Iran.
During the investigation, we found that the video circulated with the claim was old, not recent.
Claim:
X user Md Mridul Bapary shared the viral video with a misleading claim.
Other users are also sharing the same video with a similar claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by downloading the viral video, uploading it to the InVid verification tool to obtain keyframes, and then running a reverse image search on those keyframes.
We found the video uploaded on the Facebook page of People’s Daily, China. The video’s caption read: “Video showing fire broken out near a petrochemical plant in Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province.” Firefighters are at the scene, the investigation is underway. The video was uploaded on 17 August 2017.
We then checked for news reports about the incident.
We found a news report on the website of CGTN from 18 August 2017.
The report stated: The fire broke out at around 6:40 pm, with huge flames and billowing smoke seen at the location. After the fire broke out, the local government launched an emergency response, with officials overseeing rescue work at the site. Hundreds of firefighters helped extinguish the blaze. According to the local publicity department, the fire was caused by an improperly sealed pump in the plant.
A video from a different angle of the accident was also uploaded to the CGTN YouTube channel eight years ago.
We then checked if there were any reports of Iran attacking the Haifa power plant.
We found a report by Al Jazeera uploaded on 30 March regarding this.
The report stated: “An oil refinery in northern Israel has been struck in a missile barrage from Iran and Lebanon, Israeli media report, in the second attack on the facility since the United States-Israeli war on Iran began last month.”
Israeli media reported that Oil Refineries, also known as the Bazan oil refinery, in Haifa was struck on Monday. A fire broke out at the facility and large plumes of black smoke could be seen over the area.
We found similar news reports on other websites.
Conclusion: The viral video claiming to show Iran’s attack on power plant in Israel is old. Though the oil refinery in northern Israel was struck in a missile barrage from Iran and Lebanon, the viral video is from China.
