Yemen’s Huthi rebels launched a series of attacks against Israel in December but a video of a huge blaze engulfing a building that ricocheted worldwide does not show the strike. The clip shows a Saudi Arabian oil facility following a rebel attack in March 2022.
“Massive fire at Israel’s Ashkelon power plant caused by Huthi missile attack with ballistic missile, type Palestine 2,” read a December 25, 2024 X post written in Thai.
It included a 12-second video of a large facility engulfed in flames at night.
Screenshot of the false X post, taken on December 26, 2024
The video surfaced online Yemen’s as Huthi rebels said they had fired a ballistic missile and two drones at Israel, days after an attack on Tel Aviv wounded 16 people (archived link).
Israel’s military said it intercepted the missile and that one drone “fell in an open area” after sirens sounded in the country’s south, near the Gaza Strip.
“The UAV (drone) force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two military operations” targeting Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv and the southern city of Ashkelon, a Huthi military statement said.
The missile was also aimed at the Tel Aviv area, the Huthis announced earlier. The Israelis said it was shot down before it entered Israeli territory.
A Huthi military statement said the attack was carried out “using a hypersonic ballistic missile, type Palestine 2”.
The Huthis have fired a series of missiles and drones at Israel since the eruption of war in Gaza in October last year, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians.
The video was also shared with similar false claims in posts written in English, Indonesian, Spanish and Arabic.
Saudi fire
However, a reverse search using the video’s keyframes found it earlier posted on YouTube by Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned news channel, on March 26, 2022 (archived link).
The report said the building on fire was a plant belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco in the coastal city of Jeddah.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and the YouTube video by Al Arabiya (right):
Screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and the YouTube video by Al Arabiya (right)
A Yemeni rebel attack set off the huge fire near Jeddah’s Formula One circuit, part of a wave of assaults on Aramco facilities, AFP reported at the time (archived link).
Smoke billowed near the circuit following the attack, one of 16 drone-and-missile attacks by the Iran-backed rebels around the kingdom.
The wave of assaults came ahead of the seventh anniversary of a Saudi-led coalition’s military intervention against the rebels in Yemen.
AFP also distributed pictures and videos of the fire.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the false posts (left) and a video on AFP’s archives (right) with similar elements highlighted:
Screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and the AFP video (right) with similar elements highlighted
The conflict in the Middle East has spurred a wave of misinformation repeatedly debunked by AFP.
