Photo of a damaged smartphone from Egypt falsely linked to communications device explosions in Lebanon

“An iPhone exploded in Lebanon,” read X’s simplified Chinese post on September 19, 2024.

It included a photo of a damaged smartphone with exposed electronic components.

The photo was shared thousands of times with the same false claim on Facebook and X. AFP debunked a similar claim when it appeared in Arabic-language posts.

The posts appeared on the Internet after explosions targeting Hezbollah communication devices on September 17 and 18, which killed 39 people and injured almost 3,000 (archived link).

The attack was widely blamed on Israel, which declined to comment.

Hezbollah has been exchanging fire on the border with Israel almost daily since Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip (archived link).

The unprecedented attack killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages taken by the militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33, according to the Israeli military, who are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,788 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to data provided by the Hamas-controlled territory’s health ministry.

The UN described this data as reliable.

However, this photo has been circulating on the Internet since 2021.

Photo from Egypt

A reverse image search on Google found the original photo published by the Egyptian newspaper Cairo 24 on March 19, 2021, along with other photos of the burned device (archived link).

According to a report, an iPhone exploded while charging, causing a fire in a residential area in the southern part of the Egyptian capital, Cairo. She added that the child, while running away from the scene, fell and broke his arm.

Below is a screenshot comparing the fake post (left) and the original photo posted by Cairo 24 (right):

The phone’s owner told Cairo 24 that he filed a report at the police station and provided eight photos of the damaged iPhone, including the phone’s original packaging, “describing the incident and accusing the iPhone company of negligence, emphasizing that the phone is no longer there.” than a month.”

The same event was reported by the Arab media Elnabaa (archived link).

Previously reviewed AFP posts falsely linking an old photo to pager explosions in Lebanon.