Fact check: Footage of deadly Hong Kong building fire falsely linked to strikes on Israel
- By AFP -
- Mar 21, 2026
Iran has repeatedly struck Israel with drones and missiles after a joint US-Israeli strike in February 2026 triggered the Middle East war, but footage shared online depicting a massive building fire does not show the aftermath of the attacks.
The video was first published in 2025 in reports about a deadly fire at a residential complex in Hong Kong.
“Iranian missiles strike on Tel Aviv; the city’s downtown area is engulfed in a sea of flames!” reads a simplified Chinese X post published on March 17.
The attached 42-second video shows burning buildings and fire engines.
Screenshot of the false post captured on March 20, 2026, with a red X added by AFP
Both Iran and Lebanon’s Tehran-backed Hezbollah militant group have targeted Israel in a series of retaliatory attacks after a joint Israeli-US operation on February 28 killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (archived link).
A strike near Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv killed two people on March 18 according to Israeli medics, bringing the toll from missile attacks on Israel since the start of the war to 14 (archived link).
The clip has circulated elsewhere on X and in various languages, but in fact it shows a deadly fire in the Tai Po district in Hong Kong in 2025 and is unrelated to the Middle East war.
A reverse image search on Google found local outlet Inmedia published the clip on Instagram on November 26, 2025 (archived link).
The video’s caption says the fire — which broke out earlier on the day — “continued to spread in the evening with multiple buildings engulfed in flames”.
Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and Inmedia’s clip
The outlet has published other clips showing the fire from other angles (archived here and here).
Images on Google Maps Street View of the Tai Po area also show the buildings and road signs seen in the false video (archived here).
Screenshot comparison of the false video (L) and images from Google Maps Street View from March 2024, with the same elements highlighted by AFP
The devastating blaze killed 168 people, making it the world’s deadliest residential building fire since 1980 (archived link).
It engulfed seven of the eight towers in a residential complex, which were undergoing renovations and covered in bamboo scaffolding, protective netting and foam boards that may have contributed to the fire’s rapid spread.
Police have arrested 38 people on charges including manslaughter and fraud as part of a criminal investigation into the fire.
AFP has debunked other misinformation stemming from the Middle East war.