Last week, we saw a number of videos circulating on Instagram that claimed to show the aftermath of missile strikes by Iran on Israel.
However, the clips appear to be footage from wildfires that occurred in Chile earlier this year. The footage has been circulating online since at least February.
The footage shows an orange sky and a bridge. Several silhouetted figures walk through the frame, and in the background there appears to be an explosion, while fires seem to be burning in the distance.
The video was shared alongside captions that made claims such as it showed “the moment rockets fell in the occupied Negev” or “Iranian ballistic missiles hitting targets in Israel”.
The claim appears to have been repeated in multiple languages, and has been posted on several other platforms including YouTube, X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.
The earliest example we’ve found of the video online is from 4 February 2024. At the time, it was posted by an account that said the video showed wildfires in Chile’s Valparaíso region.
According to Cazadores de Fake News, a Venezuelan fact-checking organisation, the video was broadcast last week by HispanTV, a Spanish-language channel operated by Iran’s state broadcaster, which claimed the footage showed the impact of Iran’s strikes on Israel.
The same clip was shared online in March alongside claims it showed fires in Texas rather than Chile.
Misinformation, often in the form of miscaptioned videos, can spread widely on social media during unfolding global events. You can read more about how to identify misleading content in our guides to fact checking images and videos.
Full Fact has debunked other videos falsely claimed to be related to Iran and Israel, including a computer-generated clip of a WW2 battle, a rocket attack in Syria and fans of Louis Tomlinson in Argentina.
Image courtesy of sina drakhshani.