Claim: A video shows an attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house by Iran, which “fired seven drones and hypersonic missiles”, in March 2026.
Fact: The video actually shows the 9/11 attacks.
On 9 March 2026, Facebook page ‘Doctor ilyas’ posted (archive) a video showing a building being struck by an aircraft, causing a ball of fire to erupt. The accompanying caption reads as follows:
“🚨 اللہ اکبر نیتن یاہو کے گھر پر ایران نے 7 ڈرون اور ہیپرسونک میزائل اسرائیل کی جدید ٹیکنالوجی ائرن ڈوم کو چکمہ دے کر ایک دم صحیح جگہ پر نشانہ لگایا تباہی کے چانس زیادہ اور اس میں بہت سارے فوجی ہلاک ہو چکے ہیں 😍🔥
[🚨 Allahu Akbar. Iran fired seven drones and hypersonic missiles at [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s house. Dodging Israel’s advanced technology Iron Dome, it hit the exact right spot. The chances of destruction are high and many soldiers have been killed in it. 😍🔥]”
The clip surfaced around the same time as another viral claim that suggested Netanyahu’s brother was killed in an Iranian strike. Soch Fact Check debunked it here.
Israel, US war with Iran
On 28 February, Israel and the United States launched joint airstrikes on Iran and assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several top leaders in the country’s capital, Tehran.
President Donald Trump announced that “one of the most evil people in history is dead” following the airstrikes that were part of attacks codenamed Operation Epic Fury by the US and Operation Roaring Lion by Israel.
Members of Khamenei’s family — including “his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson” — were also killed in the joint attack by the US and Israel. Additionally, Defence Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, army chief Abdolrahim Mousavi, Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Pakpour, and head of the Supreme Leader’s military office, Mohammad Shirazi, among many others, were assassinated as well.
Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz, a major maritime route for fuel and trade shipment, leading to a spike in oil prices that have also impacted Pakistan.
Any vessel that tried to cross would be set “ablaze” by the country’s forces, the senior adviser to the IRGC’s commander-in-chief, Ebrahim Jabari, warned. So far, only Pakistani, Turkish, and Indian ships have been allowed to pass.
On 9 March, it was reported that Mojtaba Khamenei, the late Supreme Leader’s 56-year-old second son, was chosen by Iran’s Assembly of Experts to succeed his father.
In the days after Khamenei’s killing, other members of Iran’s top leadership were also assassinated by the US and Israel. These include: Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, the commander of the IRGC’s internal militia Basij, Gholamreza Soleimani, and IRGC spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini.
Casualties of war
Over 1,200 civilians have been killed in the airstrikes so far, Iran’s Health Ministry has said, according to an NPR report, which also quoted spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour as saying that more than 10,000 have been wounded.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has noted that nearly 3.2 million Iranians have been temporarily displaced.
In the initial days, the two countries also bombed the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in the southeastern city of Minab, killing over 160 children. The United Nations noted that it was “deeply disturbed”, while Israel said it was “investigating the incident”. Meanwhile, Rubio explained that American forces “would not deliberately target a school”.
The strikes also targeted the historic Golestan Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Tehran.
On the US side, at least 13 service members were killed, according to the Central Command (CENTCOM).
On the other hand, Iran launched “hundreds of missiles and unmanned drones” in attacks on US military bases in the Middle East, CNN and the BBC reported. “Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait […] said they had intercepted missiles fired towards them.”
“Eleven people were killed in Israel, officials said, and deaths were reported in the United Arab Emirates [UAE], Kuwait and Bahrain,” NBC News reported.
The NPR report added that the death toll in the Gulf states was at least 16.
War justifications
However, the US has not provided clear justifications for its attack on Iran, according to CNN, which said “the [Trump] administration has delivered anything but clarity”, “declined to enunciate a consistent set of goals and motivations”, and “spent the three days since shifting the goalposts and contradicting itself”.
On 1 March, Reuters reported citing sources that during closed-door briefings to Congress staff, Trump administration officials acknowledged “there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack US forces first”.
Then, on 2 March, according to ABC News, the US president laid out four objectives, saying, “First, we’re destroying Iran’s missile capabilities […] and their capacity to produce brand new ones and pretty good ones they make. Second, we’re annihilating their navy. […] Third, we’re ensuring that the world’s number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon … And finally, we’re ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”
And subsequently, on 3 March, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Israel was going to attack Iran anyway so the American forces joined in expecting retaliation from Tehran.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first searched for whether Netanyahu’s personal residence was targeted during Iran’s attacks, which have otherwise actually caused damage across Israel, but did not find any reliable reports from reputable media outlets.
However, on 2 March 2026, Al Arabiya reported citing AFP that IRGC said they had “targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office [and] airforce commander headquarters”.
“Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced on Monday that they had launched missile strikes on Israel’s government in Tel Aviv as well as security and military centers in Haifa and an attack on east Jerusalem,” the publication added.
On 9 March, The New Arab reported citing Israeli media that the country’s forces have fortified security measures — including “deploying drones” — around Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem “in the event of a potential retaliatory attack by Iran”.
The same was also reported on 9 March by Israel’s i24NEWS channel, which said security was ramped up during the preparations for Operation Roaring Lion.
The security for “a number of senior officials” was also tightened by the Israel Security Agency — also known as Shin Bet — and “some of the families of senior ministers have been moved from their homes” to safer places, it added.
As for the visuals, when we reverse-searched keyframes from the video, the results showed that the footage is actually from the 11 September 2001 attacks — colloquially known as 9/11 — by Al Qaeda operatives, who hijacked four commercial aeroplanes, two of which struck the World Trade Center’s 110-storey Twin Towers.
Both structures eventually collapsed and almost 3,000 people were killed. The incident triggered what the US termed as the “War on Terror”.
Matching footage can be found in this YouTube video, titled “9:02:50am – 9:14:07am / WTC-2 E Face / Raw Video by Scott Myers – Part 3B of 5” and uploaded on 29 March 2022.
The same footage from Myers can also be seen in another YouTube video, titled “Scott Myers’ WTC Footage (Enhanced Video/Audio & Doubled FPS)” and uploaded on 27 October 2018.
Videos from a slightly different angle were also found on Getty Images here and here, where they are credited to an individual named Mark Rudolph.
The same tower being struck can be seen in the second, fifth, and sixth pictures in a photo gallery on ABC7 News.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim circulating here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, here, here, and here on Instagram, and here, here, and here on Threads.
It was also shared here and here on X (formerly Twitter).
Conclusion: The video actually shows the 9/11 attacks.
Background image in cover photo: Netanyahu
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