2019 video showing Hezbollah’s anti-ship missiles shared as recent

By: Emmi Kivi
November 9 2023

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What is the claim?

On October 8, in solidarity with the Palestinians, Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets and shells at Israeli positions along the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The two foes have exchanged fire along the border in retaliatory clashes since Hamas' attack on October 7, but both sides have stopped short of declaring war. 

With a month into the Israel-Hamas war, the ongoing violence has also raised concerns over an escalation into a regional conflict involving neighboring countries in the region. Amid the escalation concerns, social media users are sharing a video with claims that Hezbollah has recently published footage of anti-ship missiles. Other social media users connected the release of the Hezbollah footage as a reaction to U.S. carriers moving to the eastern Mediterranean. 

However, Logically Facts found that the footage dates back to 2019 and is unrelated to the current Israel-Hamas war.

What we found

A reverse image search of some of the keyframes of the footage led to a news piece published on August 16, 2019, by La Presse headlined, "Hezbollah shows anti-ship missiles used against Israel." Accordingly, on the 13th anniversary of the war with Israel, Hezbollah media broadcast images of what it declared to be the same type of anti-ship cruise missiles used against Israel in 2006. The visuals in the article match the ones on the viral posts. 

Logically Facts found matching visuals in a report published by Al-Manar, a Lebanon-based news agency. The information is dated August 15, 2019. The report titled "Army to Be Drowned": Al-Manar Documentary that Raises Eyebrows in Israel" displays matching images to the viral videos. 

Left image displays the visuals from the viral videos. Right image shows a matching image on the Al-Manar article, 
dated August 15, 2019. Source: TikTok/ Al-Manar/Logically Facsts

The documentary discloses the events of Hezbollah targeting the Israeli warship SAAR-5 during the 2006 Lebanon war between Israel and Hezbollah, as reported by Al-Manar. The viral video footage was also shared in an article by Iran Press on August 16, 2019.

Screenshot of the article by Iran Press displaying the visuals of Hezbollah's anti-ship cruise missiles,
dated August 16, 2019. Source: Iran Press

Logically, Facts continues to monitor and cover misleading and erroneous claims as they emerge.

The verdict

Footage displaying Hezbollah's anti-ship cruise missiles dates back to 2019. It is unrelated to the current Israel-Hamas conflict—Hezbollah media broadcasted the footage in 2019 to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the war against Israel in 2006. Therefore, we have marked the claim as misleading.