A video circulating widely on social media and being shared by some news outlets is being presented as footage of the recent Houthi drone incident near Makkah. The video is not from the September 15, 2026 incident.
The footage is from an earlier incident in Madinah in September 2025 and has been recycled online to falsely connect it with the latest incident near Makkah.
What Actually Happened Near Makkah?
According to Saudi authorities, Saudi air defenses intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone south of Makkah at approximately 6:50 p.m. on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, before it entered the restricted airspace over Makkah.
The Saudi-led Coalition said the incident was the second reported attempt to target Makkah, following the ballistic missile incident of July 2017.
The latest incident has been widely reported by international and Saudi media. Reuters also reported that Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted a Houthi drone near Makkah.
However, the viral nighttime video circulating alongside reports of the incident is not evidence of this September 15 event.
The Video Shows Madinah, Not Makkah
A closer examination of the viral footage reveals that the location shown is Madinah, with recognizable features associated with the area around Masjid an-Nabawi, rather than Makkah.
The footage matches an incident reported in September 2025, when an unauthorized drone was intercepted over Madinah.
The Islamic Information reported at the time that a drone was shot down near Masjid an-Nabawi at approximately 5:40–5:43 a.m. on September 11, 2025. The report also documented the circulation of videos showing an aerial object being intercepted above Madinah.
This establishes that the footage predates the current incident by approximately one year.
The Timing Also Does Not Match
The timing provides another important clue.
The September 15, 2026 incident near Makkah was reported by Saudi authorities to have occurred at 6:50 p.m. Saudi time.
The viral footage, however, clearly shows a nighttime scene.
That discrepancy alone does not necessarily prove that a video is fake—lighting conditions can vary—but when combined with the identifiable location and the video’s documented history from September 2025, it demonstrates that the footage should not be presented as video of the September 15, 2026 incident.
The Original Footage Is From 2025
The Islamic Information published a report on September 16, 2025, documenting the Madinah incident and the videos circulating at that time.
The report states that residents and visitors near Masjid an-Nabawi heard a loud explosion and saw what appeared to be a missile-like object shortly before dawn. It later reported that authorities had confirmed an unauthorized drone was intercepted and shot down over Madinah.
The same footage has now resurfaced and is being incorrectly connected to the September 2026 incident near Makkah.
Other independent fact-checking outlets have reached the same conclusion. A fact-check published by The Express Tribune on September 16, 2026, states that the viral video is from September 2025 and shows a missile-like object over Madinah, not the recent incident near Makkah.
Newschecker likewise concluded that the video predates the latest incident and does not show the Saudi interception near Makkah.
What Is False and What Is True?
Claim: The viral video shows the Houthi drone being intercepted near Makkah on September 15, 2026.
Verdict: False.
The video is old footage from an incident in Madinah in September 2025. It should not be used as visual evidence of the September 15, 2026 incident near Makkah.
What is true: Saudi authorities did report that a Houthi drone was intercepted and destroyed south of Makkah at approximately 6:50 p.m. on September 15, 2026, before entering Makkah’s restricted airspace.
The existence of a real incident does not make unrelated footage authentic.
Why This Matters
The rapid spread of old footage during breaking news can create a false impression of what actually happened.
In this case, the recycled video changes several important details:
- Location: Madinah, not Makkah.
- Date: September 2025, not September 15, 2026.
- Time: The old footage was recorded during a nighttime/pre-dawn incident, while the latest Makkah interception was reported at 6:50 p.m.
- Event: The footage belongs to an earlier aerial interception and should not be presented as footage of the latest incident.
Some news organizations and social-media accounts have also shared the footage in connection with the latest Makkah incident. This demonstrates why visual verification is particularly important during rapidly developing stories.
The Houthi drone incident near Makkah on September 15, 2026 was a real reported event, but the viral video being circulated as footage of that incident is not authentic footage of it.
The video is from an earlier incident in Madinah in September 2025 and has been recycled and falsely attributed to the recent Makkah incident.
Do not share the video as footage of the September 15, 2026 Makkah incident.
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