A footage from October 2024 of Iranian missile strikes on an Israeli airbase is falsely viral as visuals of India's airstrike on Pakistan, as part of 'Operation Sindoor'.
BOOM found that the footage shows Iranian missiles targeting Israel's Nevatim airbase in Negev desert, and is unrelated to India's recent military operation in Pakistan.
In retaliation to the attack on Indian tourists in Pahalgam, India launched "Operation Sindoor" in the early hours of May 7, 2025, with precision strikes being carried out on bases and infrastructure linked to cross-border militants, said the Indian government and army representatives.
Indian defence forces in a press briefing confirmed that the key locations hit were Bahawalpur in Punjab province (a Jaish-e-Mohammed stronghold and birthplace of leader Masood Azhar), Muridke near Lahore (base of Lashkar-e-Taiba and home to the Markaz-e-Taiba complex), and Kotli and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
Also Read:Media Outlets Falsely Share Video From Gaza As India's 'Operation Sindoor'
In this backdrop multiple social media accounts shared the viral video—showing a series of missile strikes and explosions—with captions suggesting it showed recent footage of Indian airstrikes against Pakistani targets.
India's ruling party the Bharatiya Janata Party shared a collage of nine videos, claiming them to be the nine different proofs of the strikes on Pakistan. However, the first clip was found to from Iran's October 2024 strikes on Israel. BOOM also found the third clip to be from Israel's airstrikes on Gaza from October 2023.
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The same footage was also shared by news anchor Rubika Liyaqat, along with users on Instagram and X, with captions linking it to 'Operation Sindoor'.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on keyframes and found videos from October 2, 2024, that closely resembled the viral footage.
Doordarshan's official YouTube channel shared the exact same footage on October 2, 2024 with a title depicting it as "Iranian missiles targeting the Nevatim airbase in the Negev Desert."
Turkish public broadcaster TRT World also broadcasted a similar footage of the airstrike on its YouTube channel on October 1, 2024, also identifying it as Iran's attack on an Israeli airbase.
The video going viral is thus unrelated to the ongoing military tensions between India and Pakistan.
