Joint Israeli-American airstrikes on Iran in late February triggered a war in the Middle East. A video widely shared on social media claims to show a series of missile strikes on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, purportedly fired by Iran as part of its regional retaliation. However, the video was generated using artificial intelligence tools, and there is no evidence of the depicted bombing.
“Crazy footage of Iranian cluster Warhead missiles Hitting Tev Aviv hard (sic),” reads a Facebook post published on March 3, 2026, and shared more than 170 times.
The post includes a clip that appears to show a barrage of missiles striking a dense urban area, leaving trails of smoke.
The video has been widely shared in other languages, including French, Arabic, Spanish and German.
Tel Aviv has been targeted several times, both by Iran and its ally, the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, since the war began on February 28, 2026 (archived here).
The Iranian state-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, run by the Iranian government, said on March 4, 2026, that over 1,200 people have been killed so far (archived here). AFP has been unable to verify this.
The war has also spread to other Gulf countries, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan (archived here, here and here).
However, the video claiming to show missile attacks on Tel Aviv does not accurately depict current events.
Reverse image searches using keyframes from the clip found no credible media...
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