Iran’s propaganda is going One Direction.
Iranian state TV shared footage it claimed showed “Israelis panicking” while under attack from missiles and drones – but was really just a throng of excited Louis Tomlinson fans.
The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) shared the footage “claiming that it showed panicking Israelis amid the … Iranian attack,” according to a fact-checker for BBC Monitoring.
“In fact, it shows Louis Tomlinson fans near Four Seasons Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina last week,” a fellow BBC fact-checker said of the 32-year-old singer and one-time Harry Styles bandmate in One Direction.
The footage, also shared by numerous online influencers, was just one of a number aired by Iran’s state TV claiming to show scenes of devastation from the weekend’s air strikes, despite Israel shooting down around 99% of the drones and missiles fired at the Jewish state.
Another that IRINN claimed to be the fiery aftermath of a missile strike was actually from a February forest fire in Chile, the BBC fact finders found.
The Iranian propaganda report suggested that the Nevatim air base in the Negev desert exploded in a fireball, despite Israel reporting negligible impact, according to the outlet.
Other footage that Iran’s state TV claimed showed Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem’s Old City celebrating the attack was in fact worshipers marking the end of Ramadan, the journalists also clarified.
The Israel Defense Forces managed to shoot down 99% of the suicide drones and missiles that the Islamic Republic launched at the country in an unprecedented attack Saturday night.
It used an array of sophisticated weapons, including the IDF’s David’s Sling, Iron Dome and Arrow missiles, with assistance from the US, UK, France and even Jordan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet was expected to meet Monday afternoon local time to decide on the country’s next steps after the attack, which was launched in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Syria on April 1, when several senior commanders were killed.
Israeli officials said the war cabinet favored retaliation but was split over the timing and scale of the response.
