Iran

Did Yemen officially declare war on Israel in October 2023? No, that's not true: No credible sources have reported that as of November 1, 2023. Posts on social media making the claim misrepresented the role of the Houthi movement, which tried to launch drones and missiles targeting Israel in October 2023. This group is not internationally recognized as Yemen's government.…

Does a map published on social media claiming to show U.S. military bases around Iran accurately portray America's military presence there? No, that's not true: The map overestimates the number of U.S. bases in the region. U.S. Central Command, which has command authority over U.S. forces in the Middle East and West/Central Asia, and military experts contacted by Lead Stories…

Does a video on X show Hamas crisis actors pretending to be Palestinian corpses in October 2023? No, that's not true: This video was originally posted on YouTube in 2013. It shows students protesting at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, featuring a display of "corpses" represented by actors. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X, formerly…

Does a viral social media video show an Iranian attack on a "petrol pump" in Israel in 2023? No, that's not true: The footage is from 2014 and showed an explosion at a gas station in Makhachkala, capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan. The explosion did not happen during the October 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict. It occurred years earlier and…

Was a black flag that appeared over Razavi Shrine in Iran in October 2023 meant to express a "call to all of Islam for War"? No, that's not true: In this particular case, it was a symbol of mourning, as the Facebook account for the shrine itself wrote. While extremist groups have hijacked the symbolism of black flags in recent…

Does a video on social media prove that the United Nations "is setting up shop" in the United States in 2023 to plot for a "take over" scheduled to take place "when WW3 is declared"? No, that's not true: This years-old claim was refuted by a U.S. State Department representative in 2016. He said that the U.N. vehicles seen in…

Did a Wall Street Journal article state that it was "an American MK-84" bomb that hit the Gaza hospital on October 17, 2023? No, that's not true: The newspaper did not publish that. The only supporting "evidence" in the social media post that made this claim was a photo from 1991 unrelated to the October 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict. The claim…

Are written assertions that "American Troops do not want to die for Israel," and that the U.S. military in the region "does not have enough assets to support Israel" taken from an authentic leaked U.S. military officer's internal memo? No, that's not true: The purported email being cited and quoted on social media is fake. A press release from the…

Does a video on social media show people climbing a wall at the Lebanon-Israel border in October 2023 in response to the Hamas-Israel conflict? No, that's not true: The footage is from a 2021 protest against Israeli raids on the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip. Videos from that time showed footage similar to what is seen in this video, and news outlets…

Does a video being shared on social media show a Hamas military wing spokesperson thanking Iran for its support in October 2023, following the militant group's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023? No, that's not true: The video does show Abu Obaidah, a representative for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas,…