Old video shows Israeli PM running to parliamentary vote, not to bunker

A video of Benjamin Netanyahu rushing to vote in a parliamentary session has been shared with a false claim it shows the Israeli prime minister fleeing to a bunker during a missile attack by Iran on October 1, 2024. The clip was uploaded to his social media account three years ago.

"The moment Netanyahu fled to the shelter," reads the Thai-language text overlaid on a TikTok video shared on October 2, 2024. "Iran strikes military bases in Israel."

The nine-second clip in the post shows Netanyahu running through the hallway of a building and has accumulated over 130,000 views.

The false claim surfaced after Iran launched an attack against Israel in what it said was a response to the killings of Iran-backed militant leaders (archived link).

It was Iran's second direct attack on Israel after it fired more than 300 drones and ballistic missiles in April to retaliate against Israeli air strikes that destroyed the Iranian embassy's consular annex in Damascus, killing seven officers (archived link).

The video was shared alongside the same false claim in several languages including English, Arabic, French, Greek, Portuguese, and Burmese.

However, the video has been shared in a false context.

Parliamentary vote

The clip was first published by Netanyahu's official X account on December 14, 2021 (archived link).

"I'm always proud to run for you," read the post's Hebrew-language caption.

It went on to say the video was filmed "half an hour ago" in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, before it was posted.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video seen in the false post (left) and in the original post (right):

The 25-second video shows Netanyahu traversing through a hallway indoors and up a staircase.

Israeli media reported on the same day that Netanyahu -- who was head of the opposition at the time -- rushed to a plenary vote (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked misinformation about Netanyahu here and here.