{"id":24632,"date":"2026-08-27T14:24:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amfora.al\/?p=24632"},"modified":"2026-08-27T14:26:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:26:04","slug":"electrical-substation-presented-as-an-airbnb-as-vlora-fire-fuels-anti-israel-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amfora.al\/en\/electrical-substation-presented-as-an-airbnb-as-vlora-fire-fuels-anti-israel-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"Electrical substation presented as an \u201cAirbnb\u201d as Vlora fire fuels anti-Israel narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cDamn. A group of Israelis in Albania were kicked out of an Airbnb after the owner discovered that they were soldiers serving in the IDF. The next day, the place went up in flames. Coincidence.\u201d \u2014 With this\u00a0caption<\/a>, the \u201cParody Jeff\u201d account posted a video on the social media platform \u201cX\u201d on 22 August showing a building engulfed in flames and thick plumes of black smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An analysis of the footage and the timeline of the posts tells a different story from the one presented in a satirical tone. The structure shown burning was not a property listed for rent on the Airbnb platform, but an electrical substation serving the Vlora water utility. The footage was recorded during the fire on 11 August in the Uji i Ftoht\u00eb area of Vlora, where it was reported<\/a> that the flames had engulfed a water utility substation near the tunnel. Meanwhile, the Vlora Regional Water Supply and Sewerage Company JSC announced<\/a> that the transformer at Station No. 2 had been put out of operation as a result of the fire. The water utility subsequently warned that the situation could lead to temporary restrictions or fluctuations in the water supply, while the cause of the fire remained unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For international audiences, the electrical substation was repackaged as Airbnb-style accommodation. At the time of Amfora\u2019s monitoring, the post that triggered the avalanche of disinformation was the one published by \u201cParody Jeff\u201d, an account which states that its content is based on commentary, satire and imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post<\/a>, which claimed that the people involved were members of the \u201cIDF \u2013 Israel Defense Forces\u201d, reached 1.3 million views, approximately 62,000 likes, around 1,200 comments and about 20,000 reposts, while many users took the scenario presented at face value. The analysis also showed that this \u201cX\u201d account regularly publishes material about Palestine and criticism of Israel, the United States and the Abraham Accords, while its reporting on Iran often uses claims or statements from the Iranian authorities as a starting point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video continues to be reposted by other channels that reach broad audiences, becoming part of a series of reports linking Israelis to the starting of fires in different parts of the world. \u201cIsraelis continue to start fires around the world\u2026\u201d was the headline of an AJ+ (Al Jazeera Plus)\u00a0graphic<\/a>. Its text explained that, on 14 August 2026, a fire broke out near Sellia in Greece. A 35-year-old Israeli citizen was arrested after the authorities suspected that the fire was connected to a barbecue used for cooking food near the villa where he was staying, during a period of very high wildfire risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electrical substation repackaged as an \u201cAirbnb\u201d sparks a flood of reactions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA group of Israelis who were reportedly serving in the IDF were asked to leave an Airbnb in Albania after the owner learnt about their military service. The next day, the property was reportedly engulfed in flames. It remains unclear what caused the fire and whether the two incidents were connected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this\u00a0caption<\/a>, the \u201cHoot Republic\u201d profile continued the narrative and posted the same video on \u201cInstagram\u201d on 24 August. The video featured the overlaid text: \u201cIDF soldiers evicted from an Airbnb in Albania; property burns down the next day.\u201d It received at least approximately 22,000 likes, around 2,700 comments and about 4,500 shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHoot Republic\u201d is also\u00a0characterised<\/a>\u00a0by a strong narrative and geopolitical orientation, with distinctly pro-Palestinian content that is critical of Israel and the United States, as well as material that, in some cases, aligns with narratives favourable to Iran and Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
View of the location of the electrical substation affected by the fire. Photo-Google Street View<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Within seven hours of the earliest identified post, the video had moved across several linguistic spaces and changed context along the way. With each translation, elements were added to the claim that moved it further away from the actual event documented in Vlora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fayed Abushammalah, who has around 58,000 followers, reposted the story in Arabic through his account on \u201cX\u201d. Instead of the abbreviation IDF, the post used the phrase \u201coccupation forces\u201d and stated: \u201cThe homeowner threw them out when he learnt that they were soldiers of the occupation forces. The next day, a fire broke out at the site, in Albania.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkish\u00a0journ<\/a>a<\/a>list<\/a>\u00a0Alpaslan D\u00fcven, who has more than 25 years\u2019 experience and currently represents \u201cTurkuvaz Media Group\u201d in the United Kingdom, also reposted the video without verifying its authenticity, amplifying it and expanding the audience of the disinformation post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taken together, the reposts involved more than linguistic changes. Describing the alleged individuals as members of the \u201coccupation forces\u201d placed the story within the political framework of the Israeli\u2013Palestinian conflict. Abushammalah describes himself as a Palestinian journalist and political analyst with more than 35 years\u2019 experience and as a former BBC correspondent in Gaza. He is the first journalist identified in the monitored timeline of the claim\u2019s spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another post in Portuguese went a step further, stating that \u201cIsraelis set fire to an Airbnb property\u201d and, in the same post, describing Israelis as \u201cdemons\u201d. Amfora\u2019s monitoring also identified similar versions in Spanish, Italian and Greek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spread of the story did not only alter the claim about what had happened in Vlora. In the comments and reactions monitored by Amfora, an unsubstantiated story attributed to several unidentified people was used to make generalisations about Israelis and, in some cases, about Jews as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One user called for Israelis to be prevented from entering Albania, while other reactions called for Israeli citizens to be banned or for all IDF soldiers to be arrested. In some comments, the language went further, using dehumanising descriptions of \u201cZionists\u201d or calling for the exclusion of Jews as a whole. In this way, responsibility for a fire that had not been proven to have any connection to an Israeli citizen was shifted towards nationality and political, ethnic and religious affiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshots of reposts on X<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The message posted by \u201cParody Jeff\u201d was quote-posted, with the claim repeated in English, by a series of profiles on \u201cX\u201d, including \u201cGlobal South News\u201d, which operates<\/a> as a news aggregator focused on South Africa and states that it is based in Moscow, Russia. The account has more than 254,000 followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cParamotor News\u201d continued reposting the video and\u00a0identifies<\/a>\u00a0itself as a media account. An analysis of its content reveals a strong pro-Palestinian and Islamist orientation, amplifying material and statements from Hamas\/al-Qassam, Hezbollah and actors linked to Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this trend, the reactions were not uniform, and some users asked for sources and evidence to support the story. One wrote that they had checked several media outlets without finding reports that supported it, while another warned that the leap from an alleged accommodation dispute to an accusation of arson was based on speculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the start of civic and environmental protests against projects in Zv\u00ebrnec, narratives linking the protests to Israel were spread in parallel \u2014 entirely at odds with the reality on the ground. Social media users circulated\u00a0claims<\/a>\u00a0about \u201ccolonisation\u201d, a \u201csecond Gaza<\/a>\u201d in Zv\u00ebrnec and Sazan, and hidden Israeli interests, based on manipulated content or material taken out of context. These narratives were amplified both by domestic profiles and by foreign accounts with an anti-Israel orientation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A video of an electrical substation engulfed in flames in Vlora was shared on social media with the false claim that it showed an \u201cAirbnb\u201d that had burnt down after the owner evicted several Israeli soldiers. The claim spread in several languages, accompanied by anti-Israel narratives and, in some cases, dehumanising language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":24633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3895],"tags":[10889,4511,10895,10894,10899,10741,10890,10747,10891,10898,10896,10888,10892,10893,10897,10882,10883,10745,10746,10885,10886,10884,10887],"class_list":["post-24632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-en","tag-airbnb","tag-albania-3","tag-anti-israel-narratives","tag-antisemitism","tag-dehumanizing-language","tag-disinformation","tag-electrical-substation","tag-fact-checking","tag-fire","tag-hate-speech","tag-idf","tag-instagram","tag-israel","tag-israeli-citizens","tag-manipulated-context","tag-media","tag-mediaamfora","tag-misinformation","tag-social-media","tag-uji-i-ftohte","tag-viral-video","tag-vlora","tag-x"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t