Video shows stampede at Tel Aviv memorial event, not Israelis fleeing to bunkers
'Israeli Settlers fleeing to Bunkers as Iranian missiles being to arrive,' reads part of the caption of a video shared on Facebook on June 15, 2025.
The video shows people running in different directions in an open area, leaving behind white chairs.
Image
Screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on June 24, 2025
The post was shared two days after Israel started firing missiles at Iran on June 13, hitting nuclear and military sites as well as residential areas, prompting counterattacks from Tehran (archived here and here).
The United States also used bunker-busting bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities, which was followed by an Iranian missile attack targeting a US military base in Qatar (archived here).
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 610 civilians and wounded more than 4,700, according to the health ministry. Iran's attacks on Israel have killed 28 people, according to official figures and rescuers.
A fragile ceasefire came into effect on June 24, 2025, bringing an end to 12 days of fighting.
However, the video circulated on social media does not show Israelis fleeing to bunkers for shelter.
Tel Aviv stampede
AFP Fact Check extracted keyframes from the video to conduct reverse image searches. This led to the original version, shared on X on April 30, 2025 – weeks before the warfare started (archived here).
According to its caption, the video showed a stampede that happened at a Yom Hazikaron event in Tel Aviv, which left 20 people injured.
Yom Hazikaron, or Memorial Day, pays tribute to soldiers killed in the line of duty and to victims of attacks in Israel.
️Chaos at Tel Aviv Hostage Memorial as Police Clash Sparks Stampede
At a Memorial Day ceremony in Tel Aviv, two Palestinian Israeli ushers were assaulted and arrested by police, triggering panic and a stampede that left 20 people lightly injured.#Israel#Palestinepic.twitter.com/udqkurUe4H — Xnews_with_Grok (@Xnews_with_grok) April 30, 2025
An internet search of the keywords 'Tel Aviv + memorial + stampede' led to a news report by a local newspaper Israel Hayom that includes the same video as the one in the claim (archived here).
The stampede, it reported, happened because event staff were misidentified as "suspicious individuals wearing vests" while trying to enter a memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv.
Image
Screenshot of the video in the false post (left) and the same footage in the report about the stampede, taken on June 25, 2025
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked several other false claims related to the Israel-Iran war, such as here, here and here.
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