Pictures don’t show smoke above Tel Aviv buildings

Posts on social media platforms Threads and X (formerly Twitter) claim to show “smoke columns rise over Tel Aviv”. 

The posts are worded slightly differently but all make the same point, and include the same pictures—two which appear to be taken from a built-up area and a third from a road—which show clouds of black smoke. 

Full Fact has verified that at least two of the pictures were taken in Israel, but not in Tel Aviv. 

How did we find this? 

Often when we see pictures like this on social media, our first step is to use a reverse image search tool like Google Lens, or Russian site Yandex, to see if it’s appeared elsewhere. 

It’s very common for us to find that a picture or video is actually older, or taken in a different location, than the post claims it is and we’ve written many fact checks where this is the case. 

However, in this instance all we managed to find using these tools were versions of the images being shared with the same claims—all shared around the same time with claims it was Tel Aviv—and no history of it being shared online before. 

So instead of looking for exact matches, we focused on key features in the photos we might be able to use in order to work out where they were taken. In this case, there is a distinctive apartment building with the curved pink arches on the roof, visible in two of the images. This gave us a focal point to work from.

Using Google Lens on only this section of the photos rather than the whole picture, led to a picture on a website for an Israeli estate agent. Through this site, we found a listing for an apartment in a building which looked very similar to the one visible in the social media pictures. 

Instead of being in Tel Aviv, the address provided in the listing is actually in a city called Kiryat Malakhi, more than 20 miles away. 

Using Google Street View we were also able to compare the building next door, which also has a distinctive pink feature running vertically down the length of the apartment block. The lower buildings and trees in the social media photos, just in front of the distinct blocks, can be seen on the other side of the street on Google Street View. 

Using Google Street View we can also tell the pictures were taken facing the south-east, while Tel Aviv is north of Kiryat Malakhi, so Tel Aviv is not in the background. 

We have not been able to verify if the pictures shared in the post are recent, or linked to any attacks carried out by Iran-backed militant groups such as Hezbollah or the Houthis.

Tel Aviv targeted in recent strikes 

Tel Aviv has been the target of repeated missile attacks launched by Iran-backed groups Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as some from the Houthis in Yemen, with the situation intensifying in recent weeks. 

On 25 September Israel said it had intercepted a Hezbollah missile which had been intended to hit Tel Aviv, while in July a man was killed and eight people were injured in a Houthi drone strike on the city.

We don’t know when the first two pictures in the social media post were taken, but Kiryat Malakhi has itself previously been hit with missiles, with a deadly attack on the city taking place in 2012. 

Earlier this year two people were killed and four injured in a shooting at a bus stop in the city. 

While some posts can be more complicated than others to verify, it’s important to check if pictures shared online show what the posts claim. For help spotting misleading pictures, read our guide. You can read more of our fact checks related to the conflict in the Middle East here.