What was claimed
A picture shows recent bombing in Beirut, Lebanon.
Our verdict
Incorrect. The image is more than a year old and is of an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City.
Old image of bombing in Gaza reshared with claims it shows recent strikes in Beirut
23 October 2024
An image is being shared on social media with claims it shows recent bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. But it is actually from Gaza, and more than a year old.
Posts sharing the image on X, Telegram and Facebook on 20 October are captioned: “Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut tonight.”
Israel did carry out airstrikes on Beirut on 20 October. But the image being shared is not related.
Using reverse image search Full Fact found the image on the news agency AFP’s website, dated 9 October 2023. It is captioned: “A fireball erupts from an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City”. The photo was also used in several news reports at the time.
The posts circulating this week on social media went on to claim: “The media won’t tell you this, but Israel is dropping bombs on civilian homes and infrastructure—not military targets.” For the purposes of this fact check however we’ve not looked in detail at the impact of the 20 October bombing.
According to the BBC, the 20 October airstrikes targeted “branches of a financial association linked to [the armed group] Hezbollah”, and the association “offers financial services to civilians in areas where Hezbollah has strong support”.
During breaking news events it’s important to consider whether videos and images shared on social media really show what they claim to. Our guides to verifying misleading videos and pictures can help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as partly false because the picture shows Gaza City, not Beirut, and is more than a year old.