Claim: A video shows Iran’s retaliatory strikes on an oil refinery in Haifa, Israel, amid the ongoing war between the Middle Eastern countries.
Fact: The video is nearly a decade old and unrelated to the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.
An Instagram user “oppositioniran” shared footage (archive), claiming that it showed [translated from Persian]: “The moment Iranian missiles hit the oil and natural gas refinery in Haifa, Israel”, during the recent Israel-Iran conflict.
The embedded text in the video also alleged that the explosion occurred at the same facility.
Iran’s strike on Haifa Oil Refinery
On 15 June, an Iranian missile struck the Bazan group’s oil refinery in Haifa, a northern port city in Israel. The Bazan group, an oil refining and petrochemicals company located in the Haifa Bay, had to shut down all refinery facilities after the Iranian missile damaged a power station, according to reports citing the group.
Posts circulating online that claim Iranian missiles destroyed a facility in Haifa likely refer to this attack. While the incident did occur, the video shared in the claim is unrelated. Therefore, this article is only investigating the footage, and not the veracity of the strike itself.
Israel-Iran conflict
The conflict between Israel and Iran has now moved into its second week despite the announcement of a ceasefire.
Early morning on 13 June, Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, targeting its nuclear sites and military bases. The attacks have also struck residential areas.
The missiles targeted the Natanz nuclear site, Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility. Israel also struck the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center, damaging four buildings. The offensive killed six Iranian nuclear scientists, including Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.
Israeli attacks also killed top Iranian military officials, including General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards Chief Hossein Salami, and IRGC Aerospace Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh. Gholamali Rashid, the head of the IRGC’s Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, was also killed in the attack.
Soon after, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, named replacements for the two top Iranian commanders killed in the attack, the AP reported.
Israel’s attacks have killed at least 610 Iranians and injured another 4,746, according to Al Jazeera’s 24 June report, which cited the Iranian Ministry of Health.
Some 200 Israeli jets were involved in the attacks targeting 100 sites in Iran, The Guardian reported.
In response, Iran launched drones towards Israel, some of which were reportedly intercepted by Jordan and also spotted in Iraq’s airspace. According to an Israeli military official, the country’s air defences had “shot down many of the over 100 drones launched by Iran.” The retaliatory attacks have killed at least 29 people and wounded another 900.
It is necessary to note that official sources in Iran and Israel have not been regularly publishing death tolls during this time. Soch Fact Check has not independently verified the number of casualties reported by the Iranian and Israeli state.
The Israeli offensive occurred ahead of the nuclear talks which were scheduled to take place between the US and Iran on 15 June in Muscat, Oman. However, on 14 June, officials confirmed that the discussions between the two countries had been cancelled.
US strikes Iran
While the US initially distanced itself from this attack, calling Israel’s actions “unilateral”, US President Donald Trump later called the attack “excellent”. He asserted that more were to come unless Iran agrees to a deal with the US on its nuclear program. On 17 June, Trump warned Iranian citizens to “immediately evacuate” Tehran, and called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” the following day. Trump said the US knew where Iran’s supreme leader was hiding, but did not want him killed “for now.”
On 18 June, Khamenei rejected Trump’s call for surrender, deemed it a threat and warned that any US “strikes on its territory” would have “serious irreparable consequences.”
On 22 June, the US joined the conflict by attacking three nuclear sites in Iran. The US pilots dropped 30,000 pound bunker buster bombs, supported by the Tomahawk missiles launched by the US submarines, targeting nuclear sites in Fordo, Isfahan, and Natanz.
“I am gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran today,” said the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and described the US attack as a “dangerous escalation.”
China, Russia, and Oman condemned the US attacks on Iran, while Japan and Italy called for de-escalation, and other countries urged restraint.
Iran responded by launching missiles at the US forces at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on 23 June.
Soon after, the US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel. However, hours later, reports emerged that Israel and Iran continued to exchange attacks. Trump censured both countries for violating the agreement, “but reserved his harshest condemnation for Israel”. While addressing the media, the US President added that “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse image search using keyframes from the video, and found that it is nearly a decade old. It is not connected to the recent Iranian strike in Haifa.
Several videos from 2015 were found with the same clip as the one shared in the claim. In November 2015 (archive), a YouTube channel “Crazy China Videos” posted the video, titled “Massive explosion at Chinese chemical plant”. Frames from 0:30 to 0:39 in this footage are identical to the video in the claim (between 0:00 and 0:10), confirming that the footage predates the recent Iranian strike in Haifa.
Military.com also posted the same video (archive) in November 2015, titled “Explosion at Chemical Plant in Zhejiang, China”. Scenes from 0:26 to 0:35 in this clip match the video in the claim (until 0:10), further confirming that the video is unrelated to the current Israel-Iran conflict.
In August 2017, the People’s Daily, a Chinese newspaper, posted a similar video on X (archive), showing an explosion at a refinery. The caption read: “Video showing fire broken out near a petrochemical plant in Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province on Thurs”. From the 0:03 mark onwards, the scenes in this video match those in the claim from the timestamp 0:00 to 0:10.
Furthermore, AFP Fact Check debunked the same footage in 2019 when it was falsely linked to a fire in Singapore. The article found that the “video actually shows firefighters staging an exercise in Sichuan, China, in 2015.”
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the video predates the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran and is entirely unrelated to it.
Virality
The video also appeared on Instagram here, here, and here, and on Facebook here.
On X, the footage appeared here, here, here, and here.
Posts stating that the video shows an attack on the Israeli nuclear power plant in Haifa appeared here, here, here, here, here, on X.
On Facebook here, here, here, here, and here.
The claim appeared on Instagram here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On TikTok here and here. And on Threads here.
Conclusion: The video does not show Iran’s strike on an oil refinery in Haifa, Israel. It appeared online nearly a decade ago and is unrelated to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran.
Background image in cover photo: Reuters
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