Cars Are Not Randomly Exploding In Lebanon

Misbar investigated the viral claim and found it to be misleading.

The Car Exploded Because of a Pager

Through reverse image search, Misbar’s team traced the video back to Al Mayadeen channel, the logo of which could be seen at the end of the clip shared by the American political commentator Jackson Hinkle and The Saviour.

The Labeneese channel uploaded the video on its YouTube account on September 18 during the second wave attack on portable devices. The video was titled, “Renewed telecom devices' explosion in Lebanon.” In the description, Al Mayadeen explained that the scenes in the video were caused by telecom device explosions.

In other words, the video is indeed from Lebanon but the claim that cars were randomly exploding during the second round of the pager attack is misleading.

On September 18, the clip was shared in a report by the TF1 Info, a French commercial television network. The media outlet stated in its report that the explosion in the car happened due to an explosion of a device in it.

Moreover, screenshots taken from the video were shared by several media outlets including The Telegraph. The media outlet captioned the photo, “A car burns in Beirut after a device blew up inside,” confirming that the car itself did not explode as claimed.

The Daily Mail also shared a screenshot of the viral video in its report about how the second wave of walkie-talkie explosions unfolded.

No Reports On Cars Exploding By Themselves In Lebanon

Contrary to the viral claim, no records could be found in any credible media outlet from Lebanon or credible media outside saying that cars exploded by themselves.

All of the reports on car explosions were due to an explosion of a pager device in it. The Associated Press photographer reported on the damage to a car and mobile phone shop; however, the damage was because devices exploded inside of them.

BBC reported that only pagers and radio devices exploded. AP reported that solar equipment exploded too in the second wave attack. Al Jazeera said that laptops and mobile phones were also among the handheld devices that exploded in the second wave.

However, there are no reports of cars that exploded by themselves in the two waves of the attack in Lebanon.

Israel Kills Nearly 500 People In Lebanon

On the deadliest day in Lebanon since 2006, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 492 people in Lebanon, including 35 children and 58 women, while 1,645 others had been wounded.

The intense airstrikes forced thousands of families to flee their homes as Israel said it hit 1600 targets belonging to Hezbollah, aiming to destroy the infrastructure that the group built up since the 2006 war.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah declared that it is supporting Hamas and will not stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

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