Clip shows flooding during December storm, not aftermath of Iranian attack on Israel
Iran struck Israel and US interests in the Gulf after the two countries launched a sweeping military campaign against the Islamic republic, but footage circulating on social media of a flooded residential area does not show the impact of a supposed attack on a major Israeli desalination plant. The clip in fact shows flooding after Storm Byron inundated parts of Israel in December 2025.
The video of muddy floodwaters rushing through a residential street was shared on TikTok on March 1, 2026.
Its Indonesian-language caption says it shows the aftermath of “Iranian hypersonic missiles” hitting the Sorek desalination plant in Israel, which it says is the “backbone of Israel’s water supply and the world’s largest desalination plant.”
Seventy-five percent of Israel’s drinking water comes from desalination, the process of making seawater potable (archived link). The Sorek desalination plant — while not the largest facility in the world — is the largest in the country (archived link).
Screenshot of false TikTok post captured on March 5, 2026, with red X added by AFP
The video also spread in similar TikTok and Facebook posts claiming the Sorek plant had been targeted by Iran in retaliation for joint Israeli-US strikes on February 28 that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (archived link).
The war in the Middle East has engulfed the otherwise stable Gulf region, with Iran retaliating by launching strikes at Israel and US-linked interests in its Gulf neighbours including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
AFP reported that in the days leading up to the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, the Islamic republic’s neighbours were fearful that strikes on the country could destabilise the entire region (archived link).
The Gulf states “know they are vulnerable because the Iranians have enough basic, intermediate-range missiles to hit vital infrastructure — desalination plants, hydrocarbon hubs, power stations,” said Pierre Razoux, research director at the Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies.
But as of March 6, there have been no official reports that the Sorek desalination plant has been struck by Iranian missiles.
Like other misleading claims about the Middle East war debunked by AFP, the false posts have shared old, unrelated footage.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a similar footage that has circulated since December 12, 2025 (archived link).
The similar footage, published by Israeli news portal Ynet, is part of a compilation showing floods in parts of Israel after heavy rains brought by Storm Byron (archived link).
Additional keyword searches found local media outlets Channel 12 and Ynet News also embedded the similar clip in their reports about the storm (archived here and here).
The reports say the footage was captured in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat.
Screenshot comparison of a bus and car seen in the falsely shared video (L) and the clip shared by local media in December 2025, with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP
The local government said in a Facebook post on December 12 that a nearby stream overflowed and floodwaters rushed into a residential area (archived link).
AFP geolocated the footage to Har Ha-Shomron Street in Kiryat Gat city, which is located 37 kilometres (23 miles) south of the Sorek desalination plant (archived here and here).
Johanes Hutabarat contributed to this report
