Video shows sandstorm in Saudi Arabia, not Israel
"Israel Hit by Massive Desert Storm Amid The Nation's Fire Emergency," says the Indonesian-language caption to the video filmed from inside a vehicle and showing a giant wall of dust.
It has racked up more than 83,000 views since being posted on Instagram on May 2, 2025.
The post added that the clip was filmed in Israel's southern Negev desert.
Image
Screenshot of false post, taken on May 7, 2025
The video was also misrepresented on X, Facebook, Threads and TikTok and appeared in other posts written in English, Spanish and French.
Powerful sandstorms swept through the Negev April 30 as parts of Israel were also battling wildfires driven by strong winds, Anadolu Agency reported (archived link).
Bushfires near Jerusalem prompted widespread evacuations and road closures but were largely brought under control early May, authorities said (archived link).
However, the video circulating across various social media platforms was not shot in Israel.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes found it posted on Facebook on March 21, 2025, along with a caption that says the footage was taken in Saudi Arabia (archived link).
Image
Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and the clip from March 2025
Turkey-based fact-checking organisation Teyit previously debunked the misrepresented clip and found a structure seen at the end corresponds to a 2023 photo of a mosque in Saudi Arabia's Wadi ad-Dawasir city (archived here and here).
Image
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and geotagged photo from Google Maps (R) with corresponding features highlighted by AFP
A further search on Google Earth found aerial view of the mosque also corresponds to one shown in the video (archived link).
Image
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and aerial image from Google Earth (R) with corresponding features highlighted by AFP
The spokesperson for Saudi Arabia's National Center of Meteorology, Hussein Al-Qahtani, had also issued a statement in late March on his official X account that a dust storm had hit Wadi ad-Dawasir (archived link).
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked several claims with misrepresented videos regarding Israel here and here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
French mayor to go on trial over alleged sex-tape blackmail of political rival
A French mayor accused of using a sex tape to blackmail a political rival is set to go on trial in September after a court on Friday ordered him to face criminal proceedings. Gaël Perdriau, who leads the city of Saint-Etienne in central France, is accused of orchestrating the plot in 2015, using footage of his deputy with a male escort. The two magistrates investigating the case ordered that Perdriau, 52, be tried for blackmail, theft, embezzlement of public funds by a public official and participation in a criminal association, Lyon 's chief prosecutor Thierry Dran said in a statement. The case, triggered by a whistleblower in 2022, involves a 2015 video of former deputy mayor Gilles Artigues receiving a massage from a male escort in a Paris hotel. Perdriau allegedly demanded political loyalty and electoral concessions from Artigues in return for keeping the compromising video private, according to court documents seen by AFP. Despite being ousted from the conservative Republicans party and under pressure to resign, Perdriau has maintained his innocence and continues to hold office – even hinting at a 2026 re-election bid. The trial is set to take place between September 22 and 26, pending any appeals, the prosecutor added.
LeMonde
4 hours ago
- LeMonde
Trump says he's focusing on Russia, China, Iran and 'not thinking about Elon Musk': 'I just wish him well'
US President Donald Trump said Friday, June 6, that Elon Musk had "lost his mind" but insisted he wanted to move on from the fiery split with his billionaire former ally. The blistering public break-up between the world's richest person and the world's most powerful is fraught with political and economic risks all around. Trump had scrapped the idea of a call with Musk and was even thinking of ditching the red Tesla he bought at the height of their bromance, White House officials told AFP. "Honestly I've been so busy working on China, working on Russia, working on Iran... I'm not thinking about Elon Musk, I just wish him well," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to his New Jersey golf club late Friday. Earlier, Trump told US broadcasters that he now wanted to focus instead on passing his "big, beautiful" mega-bill before Congress – Musk's harsh criticism of which had sparked their break-up. But the 78-year-old Republican could not stop himself from taking aim at his South African-born friend-turned-enemy. "You mean the man who has lost his mind?" Trump said in a call with ABC when asked about Musk, adding that he was "not particularly" interested in talking to the tycoon. Trump later told Fox News that Musk had "lost it." Just a week ago Trump gave Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after four months working there. 'Very disappointed' While there had been reports of tensions, the sheer speed at which their relationship imploded stunned Washington. After Musk called Trump's spending bill an "abomination" on Tuesday, Trump hit back in an Oval Office diatribe on Thursday in which he said he was "very disappointed" by the entrepreneur. Trump's spending bill faces a difficult path through Congress as it will raise the US deficit, while critics say it will cut health care for millions of the poorest Americans. The row then went nuclear, with Musk slinging insults at Trump and accusing him without evidence of being in government files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump hit back with the power of the US government behind him, saying he could cancel the SpaceX boss's multi-billion-dollar rocket and satellite contracts. Trump struck a milder tone late Friday when asked how seriously he is considering cutting Musk's contracts. "It's a lot of money, it's a lot of subsidy, so we'll take a look – only if it's fair. Only if it's to be fair for him and the country," he said. Musk apparently also tried to de-escalate social media hostilities. The right-wing tech baron rowed back on a threat to scrap his company's Dragon spacecraft – vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. And on Friday, the usually garrulous poster kept a low social media profile on his X social network. But the White House denied reports that they would talk. "The president does not intend to speak to Musk today," a senior White House official told AFP. A second official said Musk had requested a call. Tesla giveaway? Tesla stocks tanked more than 14% on Thursday amid the row, losing some $100 billion of the company's market value, but recovered partly on Friday. Trump is now considering either selling or giving away the cherry red Tesla S that he announced he had bought from Musk's firm in March. The electric vehicle was still parked on the White House grounds on Friday. "He's thinking about it, yes," a senior White House official told AFP when asked if Trump would sell or give it away. Trump and Musk had posed inside the car at a bizarre event in March, when the president turned the White House into a pop-up Tesla showroom after viral protests against Musk's DOGE role. But while Trump appeared to hold many of the cards, Musk also has some to play. His wealth allowed him to be the biggest donor to Trump's 2024 campaign, to the tune of nearly $300 million. Any further support for the 2026 midterm election now appears in doubt –while Musk could also use his money to undermine Trump's support on the right.
LeMonde
5 hours ago
- LeMonde
French renewable energy is in turmoil after massive Spanish power outage
"France is producing too much electricity, risking a financial meltdown." In mid-April, the business daily La Tribune sounded the alarm. The headline summed up a concern that has gripped part of the French energy and political world for months: While in 2022 the country braced for potential power cuts due to nuclear fleet failures, soaring energy prices and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a new fear has been raised – overproduction. The main culprits are solar and wind power, which are providing increasingly more energy while electricity consumption is stagnating. Their rise could threaten the grid, public finances and the nuclear fleet, prompting calls to slow – or even stop – their development. Just days before stepping down as CEO of EDF (multinational electric utility company), Luc Rémont described to lawmakers in the French Sénat on April 22 the "major challenge" posed by "the growing gap between supply and demand" for electricity. "In the coming years, we will have to ensure that this imbalance between dispatchable sources [notably nuclear] and intermittent sources [renewables] does not undermine the stability of the system, either physically or economically. That is truly the greatest challenge we face," he stressed.
