On Friday (June 13), Israel carried out an attack targeting Iran’s nuclear and military installations. In response, Iran launched missile strikes against Israel. Amid this backdrop, a video is being circulated on social media claiming to show “a devastating Iranian attack on Israel’s weapons arsenal.”
See the viral Facebook posts claiming this here: Here (Archived) and Here (Archived).
Fact-check
Rumor Scanner’s investigation reveals that the video being circulated does not show an Iranian attack on Israel’s arsenal amid the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict. Rather, it is footage from an explosion that took place in 2015 after a fire at a warehouse in Tianjin, China.
A reverse image search using multiple keyframes from the video led to a YouTube video published by BBC News on August 14, 2015, titled “Tianjin explosion video captures fear of eyewitnesses – BBC News.” The video being circulated closely matches this original footage.
The description of the video reads: “Footage of two massive explosions in Tianjin, China, filmed by a stunned eyewitness, clearly captures the fear and panic of people in the area. The explosions occurred after a fire broke out at a warehouse owned by a company responsible for storing hazardous chemicals. Many were killed and hundreds were injured.
City officials have said they still don’t know exactly what materials were present in the warehouse at the time of the fire, or what triggered the blasts. Eyewitness Dan Van Duren captured the explosion on camera, after which he and others quickly fled to avoid danger.” (Translated)
Additionally, the same footage can also be found in a video titled “Tianjin Chemical plant explosion in China INSANE!!!” published on August 14, 2015, by a YouTube channel named Dan Witting.
Conclusion
It is clear that the video in question actually dates back to 2015 and shows an incident in China. Therefore, sharing this footage as if it depicts an Iranian strike on an Israeli weapons facility during the current conflict is false.
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