Does a trending video on social media authentically capture a fight inside a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv, Israel? No, that's not true: What looked like a crowd pushing each other was a scene from another country, Georgia. It depicted the atmosphere on the day of a verdict in a high-profile trial 13 years earlier.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on June 17, 2025. It opened:
'And the fight began'.
Live from Tel Aviv Bunker.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
The 34-second clip showed a crowded indoor space where people were pushing each other for an unclear reason, with a few participants being more physical than others. The post implied that the footage authentically showed a scene from a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv during the June 2025 escalation between Israel and Iran (archived here), but the video was recorded several years earlier and at least 750 miles away from that location.
Also, at the time of the Israel/Iran hostilities it had been online for 13 years. The clip was to the platform then known as Twitter, on June 12, 2012 (archived here), under a caption that read:
Happening now at regime prisoner Mate Devidze's sham trial. #terrorinGeorgia
The post referred to a case that was being heard in the country of Georgia. Media outlets -- for example, the Georgian service of Radio Liberty (archived here) -- showed similar videos recorded on the same day in the same courthouse:
(Source: Facebook screenshot by Lead Stories; caption was automatically translated by Chrome)
Other shots from the Radio Liberty report show arched windows similar to those in the video in question. That confirms that the space was not a "bunker" built to withstand an impact from the outside, which would not include large windows.
(Sources: X and Facebook screenshots; composite image by Lead Stories)
Additionally, in both videos, we see the same patches worn by men and women in white uniform shirts who appear to be security officers:
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Other Lead Stories fact checks about claims concerning the June 2025 escalation between Israel and Iran can be found here.
