On Tuesday night, Iran launched an unprecedented missile attack on Israel, which it said was a response to the killing of the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyeh, and the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah. After that, social media pages and accounts in several languages around the world circulated a video that was said to show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fleeing while missiles were falling on Tel Aviv.
But this video is actually old, and it depicts Netanyahu rushing to a meeting in the Knesset in 2021, and the video depicts Benjamin Netanyahu running through the corridors of a building.
The comments accompanying the posts stated, “The moment Netanyahu escaped while heading toward the shelter from Iranian missiles.”
This video has gained wide circulation and hundreds of thousands of views since it was first published in this context, shortly after the Iranian missile attack, which sparked widespread interest on Arabic-language social media sites.
I am always proud to run for you. 🇮🇱💪🏻
It was taken half an hour ago in the Knesset pic.twitter.com/Tk386NOKU5
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) December 13, 2021
Thousands of social media users in the Middle East shared pictures and video clips quoted from news stations, including scenes of burning projectiles in the sky of Israel. The hashtags related to this attack topped the X website throughout the Arab region.
Iran said that its attack came in response to the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in a violent Israeli raid in the southern suburb of Beirut on Friday, and to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran in an attack attributed to Israel.
While the Iranian Revolutionary Guard said that the attack targeted “three military bases” in the vicinity of Tel Aviv, and that 90% of the missiles reached their targets, the Israeli army said that “Iran’s attack is a dangerous and grave escalation and will have consequences,” and that “Iran and its proxies seek to destroy Israel.” .
This is the second attack launched by Iran against Israel after the April attack, when Tehran said it acted in “self-defense” after the attack that destroyed its consulate in Damascus and led to the death of seven soldiers.
In light of this atmosphere of tension and escalation, this video spread, which its publishers said depicted the Israeli Prime Minister fleeing under the bombing. But the claim is not true.
AFP fact-checking journalists quickly identified this video, as it had previously been used in other misleading contexts.
This video was published for the first time on Netanyahu’s page on the X website, on December 13, 2021.
The accompanying commentary in Hebrew stated that Netanyahu was rushing to participate in a Knesset session.
He added in the comment, “I am always proud to run for you.”
