Footage of ‘fighting in southern Lebanon’ is from Syria in 2016

A video circulating on social media claiming to show recent fighting on the southern Lebanon border, is actually from the war in Syria in 2016.

The video shows a group of people in military uniform getting struck by a missile. Posts on Facebook are captioned “This is Southern Lebanon border”, and sometimes include hashtags for Israel and Lebanon. But the footage being shared is much older and from Syria, not Lebanon. 

Using Google Lens, Full Fact found a longer version of the video, which clearly shows that a group of people are struck by a missile, in an Al Jazeera article about a rebel attack on Syrian government forces south of Aleppo in 2016. It was also shared by other local media at the time.

Israel announced it had launched a ground invasion in southern Lebanon overnight on 30 September as part of what it called “limited, localised and targeted” raids against the armed group Hezbollah. 

We’ve written a number of articles about miscaptioned videos from the recent conflict in the Middle East, including claims a video shows Tel Aviv destroyed by Iranian missiles, when it actually shows a factory fire in Taiwan, and that footage shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu running to a “bunker” during recent missile strikes on the country, when it actually shows him running to vote in Israel’s parliament.

During global 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 content can help you do this.