Images, sometimes presented as Israeli attacks on Beirut or Hebzollah responses to Israel, were shared massively on social networks. Relayed by dubious accounts, they are mostly old and taken out of context.
An epidemic of misinformation about a very real conflict. Since Monday September 30, Israel has been carrying out a ground offensive in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah, support of Iran and Hamas. In response, the Islamist movement, whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed by an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, threatened on Tuesday October 8 to intensify its rocket fire on Israel, particularly on Haifa. In the midst of these hostilities, images, most of them old and taken out of context, spread across social networks, relayed by both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli accounts. Franceinfo verified six of them.
A Total station bombed
The video has been viewed nearly 20 million times. A widely followed pro-Palestinian account shared a video on Sunday October 6 on the social network X showing an explosion in Beirut. “Israel targeted the gas station of the French multinational TotalEnergies in Beirut. This comes after Emmanuel Macron banned military aid to Israel”comments the author, describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “psychopath”.
Emmanuel Macron certainly spoke out in favor of stopping deliveries of military equipment to Israel, which provoked a strong reaction from the Israeli Prime Minister. But not to the point of hitting the French oil giant in retaliation.
The original video, published by the Lebanese channel Al Jadeed on Saturday October 5, shows explosions affecting the Bourj el-Brajné district. According to TF1, the building targeted by the IDF housed a telecommunications company and was located 300 m from the TotalEnergies group station, which Franceinfo was able to confirm. TotalEnergies also confirmed to TF1 that the service station had not been affected.
An explosion in Beirut
On Monday October 7, the date of the commemoration in Israel of the first anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attacks, the pro-Israeli account Documenting Israel shared the video of an impressive explosion on X, with this comment: “The Israeli army attacked Hezbollah targets in Beirut last night.” This video was also shared by Yinon Magal, a widely followed former far-right Israeli MP.
Strikes did take place on the night of Sunday October 6 to Monday October 7, the official Lebanese agency ANI reported four Israeli raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut. “The first targeted the Sainte-Thérèse district and the second the Bourj el-Brajné district”she reported. The ANI agency then reported two other strikes, including one against the town of Hadeth.
However, the video shared by Documenting Israel is old and taken out of context. It is in reality the explosion of a gas station in Yemen, which occurred on August 31, underlines the Israeli NGO fighting against disinformation Fake Reporter. As noted by AFP, the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera broadcast on Saturday August 31 on YouTube a compilation of amateur videos of this explosion, from various angles.
Buildings on fire in Beirut
“Beirut, if you don’t learn from Gaza, you will become Gaza”warns an Indian Internet user on X, Monday October 7, sharing a video of buildings on fire in the middle of the night to distressing music. However, the first five seconds of this video are generated by artificial intelligence, as pointed out by analyst Tal Hagin, member of the Fake Reporter collective, on the same social network.
Shared 27,000 times and viewed more than 10 million times, the original video was posted on TikTok by the account @digital.n0mad on October 1. Although it locates Beirut as the location, it includes the mention “The creator indicated that this content was generated by AI“. A statement which admits of no ambiguity.
A fire in Tel Aviv
Also on October 7, a pro-Palestinian account accustomed to disinformation published a photo on “Tel Aviv is in flames”. Elon Musk’s platform now specifies that it is a “manipulated media” : “You may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that is likely to mislead or confuse people and cause harm.”explains the social network.
‘This is not Tel Aviv. It was in Moscow in March, during the attack on Crocus City Hall.commented the account @Osint_random, specializing in the fight against disinformation, on of Moscow Times published on March 22.
Tel Aviv, Israel’s second largest city, was however targeted by Hezbollah: the Lebanese group announced on Monday October 7 that it had fired a salvo of rockets towards the main Israeli military intelligence base near Tel Aviv. . An attack in response to the death of their leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed at the end of September by Israel. The Israeli army assured that it had not been affected.
Israeli soldiers attacked
Here’s another video taken out of context. We can see soldiers in fatigues near a wall, targeted by a projectile. The video has very poor quality and has no sound. “Wow, this is the border in southern Lebanon”rejoices a widely followed pro-Palestinian Internet user, accustomed to disinformation.
But contrary to what is suggested, namely a recent attack on Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, this is in fact rebel fire on the troops of the regime of Bashar Al-Assad. The video dates from eight years ago, notes a BBC journalist on X.
The original video, of much better quality, was found by the Indian fact-checking site Boom. Posted on Facebook in August 2016, it features the logo of Fastaqim Kama Umirt, a Sunni Islamist rebel group. This attack was reported at the time by Al-Jazeera on its Arabic-language site.
Tel Aviv attacked by drones
Did a salvo of kamikaze drones hit Tel Aviv, causing a “major fire” ? This is what an obscure account on X claimed on Thursday October 3. The video was even relayed by the English-speaking account of the Iranian state channel PressTV, as noted by a BBC journalist on X.
It is in fact a fire that occurred in a central station in Safed, an Israeli town located around thirty kilometers from the Lebanese border, in June 2022, according to the Lebanese television channel Al-Mayadeen. Some 18 buses went up in flames.