Old photo of Israel's Iron Dome falsely linked to Iran attack
Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on April 13, 2024, but a photo shared online of rockets lighting up the night sky did not show the assault. The picture in fact showed Israel's Iron Dome air defence system intercepting rockets from Gaza in October 2023.
"[Israel] is losing out. Iranian drones light up and fly around to use up Israel's missile stockpile," read a simplified Chinese Weibo post shared on April 14, 2024.
It went on to say Israel's Iron Dome air defence system was "highly costly" and "wasted a lot of missiles" by intercepting Iranian drones.
Overnight on April 13, Iran carried out its first attack to directly target Israel, its regional foe.
Israel intercepted most of the 300 missiles and drones launched by Iran with support from its allies and suffered no deaths.
Tehran launched its attack in retaliation for the April 1 strike on its consulate in Damascus. In that attack, seven of Iran's Revolutionary Guards including two generals were killed.
The photo was also shared in similar Weibo posts commenting on Iran's attack.
Other posts shared the image alongside a video of people running in the street. AFP has debunked that video, which was unrelated to the Iran attack and showed fans of British singer Louis Tomlinson scrambling to see the star in Argentina.
Old photo
Reverse image searches and keyword searches on Google found the photo published by the Reuters news agency on October 9, 2023 (archived link).
The photo caption says: "Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the city of Ashkelon, Israel, October 9, 2023."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo falsely shared online (left) and Reuters' photo (right):
Israel's war in Gaza broke out following Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The militants also took about 250 hostages. Israel estimated 129 remained in Gaza, including 34 who were presumed dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,970 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Iron Dome
Israel's Iron Dome air defence system has intercepted thousands of rockets since it first went into operation in 2011, providing the country with crucial cover during times of conflict.
The Israeli army said 75 to 90 percent of attempted interceptions were successful -- at an estimated cost of 50,000 dollars each time.
AFP has fact-checked a wave of misinformation following Iran's attack here.
