Video shows fire at Iran oil depot after Israeli strike, not blaze at Haifa refinery
"This video confirms Iran's attack on Israel's largest energy facility in the city of Haifa," reads part of a Thai-language X post shared on June 16, 2025.
"This refinery is the strategic energy heart of Israel, producing nine million tonnes of fuel per year. Iran's attack will impact energy supplies for both the Israeli military and civilians."
The attached 22-second video shows a fire burning at a compound as thick black smoke billows into the night sky. An urban area is visible in the background.
Image
Screenshot of the false X post, captured on June 18, 2025
The same footage was shared in similar Thai posts on Facebook and TikTok.
The posts emerged after Tehran responded to Israeli strikes on its nuclear and military facilities on June 13 with a barrage of missiles and drones (archived here and here).
The arch foes have continued to trade fire in their most intense confrontation in history, fuelling fears of a drawn-out conflict that could engulf the Middle East.
The Israeli prime minister's office said on June 16 that at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since Iran's retaliatory strikes began. Iran said a day earlier that the Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.
While Israeli officials confirmed an oil refinery in the coastal city of Haifa was struck by an Iranian missile on June 15, the video in fact shows an Iranian oil depot following an Israeli strike (archived here and here).
Shahran oil depot
A reverse image search using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same clip posted by an Iranian user on X on June 15 (archived link).
Its Persian-language caption indicates it shows the Shahran oil depot.
also appears in a YouTube video published by Forbes, titled: "RAW VIDEO: Shahran Oil Depot In Tehran, Iran, Is Hit By Israeli Strikes" (archived link).
The video is credited to a contributor via Getty Images (archived link).
Its on the Getty Images website reads in part: "Fire and smoke rise into the sky after an Israeli attack on the Shahran oil depot on June 15, 2025 in Tehran, Iran."
Image
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the Getty Images distributed video (right)
Iran's oil ministry said two depots -- including Shahran -- had been struck (archived link).
An AFP journalist saw a depot at Shahran on fire, and an AFP video shows the blaze (archived link).
Elements of the falsely shared video -- including the large fuel tanks, hilly terrain and nearby urban area -- also match Google Maps imagery of the Shahran depot (archived link).
Image
Screenshot of Google Maps imagery of the Shahran oil depot in northwest Tehran
AFP has debunked several other false claims related to the Iran-Israel conflict.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
US military aircraft no longer visible at base in Qatar: satellite images
Between June 5 and 19, nearly all of the aircraft visible at the Al Udeid base are no longer anywhere in plain sight, according to images published by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by AFP. Nearly 40 military aircraft -- including transport planes like the Hercules C-130 and reconnaissance aircraft -- were parked on the tarmac on June 5. In an image taken on June 19, only three aircraft are visible. The US embassy in Qatar announced Thursday that access to the base would be limited "out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing regional hostilities," and urged personnel to "exercise increased vigilance." The White House says US President Donald Trump will decide sometime in the next two weeks whether to join ally Israel's strikes on Iran. The Islamic republic could then respond by striking US bases in the region. Mark Schwartz, a former lieutenant general in the US Army and a defense researcher at the Rand Corporation, said the personnel, aircraft and installations at Al Udeid would be "extremely vulnerable" given its "close proximity" to Iran. Schwartz, who served in the Middle East, told AFP that even shrapnel could render the aircraft "non-mission capable." "You want to reduce risk to US forces, both personnel and equipment," he said. The planes that have left the tarmac since early June could have been moved to hangars or to other bases in the region. The US military did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. US forces in the Middle East have been mobilized since Israel's first strikes on Iran nearly a week ago, with an additional aircraft carrier en route and significant aircraft movement. An AFP analysis of open source data tracking aircraft positioning showed that at least 27 military refueling planes -- KC-46A Pegasus and KC-135 Stratotanker planes -- traveled from the United States to Europe from June 15-18. Twenty-five of them were still in Europe as of late Wednesday, with only two returning to American soil, the data showed.
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Iran has just finished losing a war and is not in a position to dictate terms, analyst says
12:05 U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken by phone several times since Israel began its strikes on Iran last week, in a bid to find a diplomatic end to the crisis, three diplomats told Reuters. Speaking to FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney, Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, says Iran is not in a position to dictate terms in possible negotiations.
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Israel says Khamenei 'can no longer be allowed to exist' after Iran strikes hospital
Israel's defence minister warned that Iran 's supreme leader "can no longer be allowed to exist" after a hospital was hit in an Iranian missile strike on Thursday, spiking tensions in the week-old war. As President Donald Trump dangled the prospect of US involvement, Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba was left in flames by a bombardment that Iran said targeted a military and intelligence base. Meanwhile Russia, an Iranian ally, told the United States that joining the conflict would be an "extremely dangerous step". Israel, fearing Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch-enemy last week, triggering deadly exchanges. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would "pay a heavy price" for the hospital strike, while Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals," Katz told reporters. "He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist." 06:54 The latest escalation came on the seventh day of deadly exchanges between the two countries that have plunged the region into a new crisis, 20 months into the Gaza war. Hospital director Shlomi Codish said 40 people were injured at the Soroka, where an evacuated surgical building was hit leaving smoke billowing. "Several wards were completely demolished and there is extensive damage across the entire hospital," he told journalists at the site. World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called attacks on health facilities "appalling", while UN rights chief Volker Turk said civilians were being treated as "collateral damage". 'People are really panicking' People fleeing the attacks on Iran described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages and limited internet access. "People are really panicking," a 50-year-old Iranian pharmacist who did not want to be named told AFP at the Kapikoy crossing on the Turkish border. "Yesterday the internet stopped and two major banks were hacked so people couldn't access their money. And there's not even enough food." 01:33 Khamenei has rejected Trump's demand for an "unconditional surrender", despite the president's claim that Iran wants to negotiate. Trump has been deliberately vague about joining the conflict. The White House said on Thursday he will decide whether to join Israel's strikes on Iran within the next two weeks as there is still a "substantial" chance of talks to end the conflict. Any US involvement would be expected to involve the bombing of a crucial underground Iranian nuclear facility in Fordo, using specially developed bunker-busting bombs. The White House said Trump would receive an intelligence briefing on Thursday, a US holiday. Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is set meet his British counterpart for talks expected to focus on the conflict. In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that any US military intervention would have "truly unpredictable negative consequences". Nuclear sites On Thursday, Israel said it had carried out dozens of fresh raids on Iranian targets overnight, including the partially built Arak nuclear reactor and a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. The Israeli military said the Arak site in central Iran had been hit "to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development". There was a "near-total national internet blackout" in Iran on Wednesday, a London-based watchdog said, with Iran's Fars news agency confirming tighter internet restrictions after initial curbs imposed last week. An Israeli military official, who asked not to be named, said Wednesday that Iran had fired around 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones since the conflict began on Friday. Iranian strikes have killed at least 24 people and injured hundreds since they began, Netanyahu's office said on Monday. Iran said Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent – far above the 3.67-percent limit set by the 2015 deal, but still short of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead. Israel has maintained ambiguity on its own arsenal, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says it has 90 nuclear warheads.
