Yemen’s Huthi rebels launched a series of attacks on Israel in December, but video of a massive fire engulfing a building that ricocheted around the world does not show the attack. The clip shows a Saudi Arabian oil facility after a rebel attack in March 2022.
“Massive fire at Israel’s Ashkelon power plant caused by a Huthi rocket attack with a Palestine 2 type ballistic missile,” read an X-post dated December 25, 2024, written in Thai.
It contained a 12-second video of a large facility going up in flames overnight.
Screenshot of the fake X-post, taken on December 26, 2024
The video surfaced online in Yemen 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).
The Israeli military said it intercepted the rocket and that one drone “fell into an open area” after sirens sounded in the south of the country, near the Gaza Strip.
“The UAV (drone) force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two military operations” targeting Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv and the southern city of Ashkelon, a Huthi military statement said.
The missile also targeted the Tel Aviv area, the Huthis previously announced. The Israelis said it was shot down before entering Israeli territory.
A Huthi military statement said the attack was carried out “using a hypersonic ballistic missile, Palestine 2 type.”
The Huthis have fired a series of rockets and drones into Israel since the war in Gaza broke out last October, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians.
The video was also shared with similar false claims in posts in English, Indonesian, Spanish and Arabic.
Saudi fire
However, a reverse search using the video’s keyframes revealed it was previously posted on YouTube by Al Arabiya, a news channel in Saudi Arabia, on March 26, 2022 (archived link).
According to the report, the building on fire was a factory of Saudi oil giant Aramco in the coastal city of Jeddah.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the fake message (left) and Al Arabiya’s YouTube video (right):
Screenshot comparison between the fake message (left) and Al Arabiya’s YouTube video (right)
A Yemeni rebel attack caused the massive fire near Jeddah’s Formula 1 circuit, part of a wave of attacks on Aramco facilities, AFP reported at the time (archived link).
Smoke billowed near the circuit after the attack, one of 16 drone and missile strikes by Iran-backed rebels around the kingdom.
The wave of attacks came ahead of the seventh anniversary of a Saudi-led coalition’s military intervention against rebels in Yemen.
AFP also distributed photos and videos of the fire.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the fake messages (left) and a video in AFP’s archives (right) with similar elements highlighted:
Screenshot comparison between the fake message (left) and the AFP video (right), with similar elements highlighted
The conflict in the Middle East has led to a wave of disinformation that has been repeatedly debunked by AFP.
