Video of “Missiles Hit Tel Aviv” is from Kiev in 2023 – full facts

Posts on Facebook purporting to show videos of rocket strikes in Tel Aviv, Israel, actually show an airstrike on the Ukrainian capital of Kiev in 2023.

The video, which appears to show a missile hitting a building and a large explosion at night, was shared on Facebook with the caption “The moment Yemeni missiles reached occupied Tel Aviv and hit their targets.”

But as we previously reported, the clip is actually year-old footage from Kiev, Ukraine. According to Ukrainian officials, on August 30, 2023, two people were killed by debris from intercepted Russian missiles that struck buildings, a park and a school. A higher quality version of the clip with different audio was published by the BBC with the headline “Rocket explodes over Kiev” and by several other media outlets.

The Israeli army has reported that Houthi rebels from Yemen recently fired rockets into the country, but the video posted online has nothing to do with that conflict. The Houthis are an Iran-backed rebel group in Yemen that have fired rockets and drones at Israel since the start of the Gaza war following Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, but most of them have been intercepted.

Videos with incorrect captions are a common form of misinformation. We have seen many examples online recently related to the Israel-Gaza conflict and the broader conflict in the Middle East.

For advice on how to verify videos yourself, see our guide.