What was claimed
Two images show wildfires in Israel.
Our verdict
While Israel has faced wildfires recently, these pictures are unrelated. They are from news coverage of fires in New Jersey this year.
Images show wildfires in New Jersey not Israel
A Facebook post which shares two pictures of burning trees alongside a caption about wildfires in Israel is misleading. Both images are from the United States.
The post, which has received over 1,900 shares, states: “Israil [sic] is burning now. A huge fire broke near Jerusalem…
“Raging wildfires are encroaching upon residential areas in central Israel, fueled by scorching temperatures and arid windstorms.”
It includes a collage of two photos, one showing some buildings in front of a burning skyline, and the other trees in a forest on fire.
It is true that Israel has recently battled wildfires, with a blaze which broke out on Wednesday 30 April outside Jerusalem scorching around 5,000 acres, leading to several towns being evacuated and the declaration of a national emergency.
But the images being shared are not related to these wildfires.
Using reverse image search, we found that the top image is from a video report about a wildfire in Ocean County, New Jersey in the United States. The version being shared online is of much lower quality.
The second image can be seen in a post by the Egypt Telegraph on X (formerly Twitter) from 23 April, where it was shared with a caption (translated from Arabic by Google) saying: “#Massive forest fires in #NewJersey and evacuation of thousands of residents.”
That image also includes a watermark for WPVI, a television station owned and operated by the ABC network in the US.
The New Jersey wildfire, which is believed to have started on 22 April, has since grown to cover over 15,000 acres, but officials say is now around 90% contained. Around 3,000 people were placed under mandatory evacuation, although no casualties have been reported.
We have previously fact checked other misleading fire images and videos, including from the LA fires in January, and the wildfires in Maui in 2023.
Before sharing images like this that you see on social media, take a moment to consider whether they come from a trusted source, and whether they could have been altered or miscaptioned. Our guide to spotting misleading images online can help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because the implied claim, that the images show the current wildfires in Israel, is false.