Claim: A video shows Hezbollah’s attack on a secret Israeli headquarters in May 2026.
Fact: The video appeared online in December 2025 and shows a fire that engulfed a market in St. Petersburg, Russia.
On 23 May, multiple users posted a video apparently showing a building on fire after Hezbollah’s attack on Israel’s secret base. The caption of one such post on X claims [translated from Urdu into English]:
“Breaking
According to reports, Hezbollah, with the cooperation of Iran, attacked a very important secret headquarters of Israel and it is being described as a major success for Hezbollah and Iran.”
Screenshot of the X post
This article only fact-checks the video in the claim, and not whether any such attack was carried out on “secret Israeli headquarters”.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video and found that it is not from May 2026. Furthermore, geolocating the clip revealed it is from St. Petersburg, Russia.
Multiple X users posted the same clip on 10 December 2025 with captions linking the video to a fire in a market in St. Petersburg, Russia.
On the left is the clip shared in May 2026, which is the same as the one from December 2025 on the right.
Another such X post by “RT_com” on 11 December 2025 carries a shorter version of the same footage and states the following: “1 dead, 1 injured in MASSIVE FIRE in Saint Petersburg — Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry
Fire spreads to 1,500 square meters”.
Under the above post by X handle of “RT_com” is a repost from 10 December 2025, carrying a clip that shows the incident from another angle.
Soch Fact Check geolocated the clips in both X posts and found that the incident occurred at coordinates 59.9043576,30.4665152. The location is called “Pravoberezhnyy Rynok” on Google Maps, which roughly translates to “Right Bank Market”, confirming that the video was shot in St. Petersburg, Russia.
On the left is a keyframe from a clip by RT’s X profile, geolocated and marked on Google Maps on the right.
On the left are two keyframes showing two different buildings from the first clip, which match the ones from Google Street View on the right.
The clip also appeared on Reddit and Instagram on 10 December 2025.
Al Jazeera English also shared a clip showing various scenes of the same incident on Facebook on 12 December 2025. “A massive fire engulfed nearly 1,500 square metres of Russia’s Nevsky Market in Saint Petersburg, killing at least one person and injuring several others,” reads the description.
A fire engulfed the Pravoberezhny market in St. Petersburg, Russia, in December 2025 and killed one person, according to reports.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, rates the claim as false as it is unrelated to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and originated in Russia.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the clip was shared widely on Facebook, at least 13 times in May 2026.
It also appeared on X at least five times.
It was also shared on Instagram once.
Conclusion: The video does not show any recent attack on Israeli “secret headquarters” by Hezbollah. It shows a market fire in St.Petersburg, Russia from December 2025.
Background image in cover photo: Al Jazeera
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