Fact Check: Iranian airstrikes on Israel, Dubai airport burning? No, AI videos go viral
Two videos claiming to show Iranian airstrikes on Israel and another allegedly showing Dubai airport on fire have gone viral.
By - Rahul Adhikari
Claim:The videos show Iranian airstrikes on Israel and the Dubai airport burning.
Fact:False. The three videos were created using AI.
Hyderabad: Two videos allegedly showing Iranian airstrikes on Israel and one claiming to show Dubai airport on fire have surfaced on social media amid the Iran, US and Israel conflict.
Israeli and US warplanes launched a fresh wave of strikes across Iran, where, reportedly, more than 500 people have been killed since the conflict began. Meanwhile, Iran and its proxies continue to strike US allies in the Middle East.
One of the two videos shows multiple airstrikes hitting the ground and causing explosions. The second video shows two missiles striking a city, triggering blasts and sending flames and smoke into the air.
The two videos were shared on X and can be seen here (Archive) and here (Archive).
A user shared the third video on X, in which a plane is seen standing near a building as huge plumes of smoke rise from it, while firefighters attempt to extinguish the blaze. The caption of the post read, “Just in: Dubai airport is currently completely out of sarvice Zionist arab Emirates cancelled.” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claims are false. All three videos were generated using AI and circulated as footage from the recent conflict.
Analysis of the first video
We carefully reviewed the video and noticed that the explosions created an intense orange glow, but nearby buildings, including the golden dome, do not reflect the light naturally. The missile trails also move at speeds and trajectories that look inconsistent. The anomalies indicate that the video could have been created using AI.
To confirm the authenticity of the video, we ran it through the AI-generated content detection tool Hive. The results showed a 99.5 per cent probability that the video was generated using AI.
Analysis of the second video
We noticed several anomalies in the video as well. The explosions expanded unnaturally and the smoke flickered instead of spreading normally. Buildings and light poles also appeared to warp or change shape a little as the camera moved, which looked unusual.
Hive noted that overall, the video is likely AI-generated with an aggregate score of 93.6 per cent.
We uploaded the video to Google Gemini for further verification. Gemini stated, “Based on an analysis of the video you provided and recent verification data from 2025 and 2026, the footage is AI-generated.”
It further noted that many versions of this specific clip originally had a watermark, such as from Google’s Veo or other AI tools, which have been cropped out by social media users to make it seem authentic.
Analysis of the third video
We noticed that in this video, the smoke doesn’t have a consistent source point on the plane. It seemed to emerge from the entire side of the fuselage at once and moved with a dream-like fluidity typical of AI generators.
We also couldn’t find any news reports of a missile strike at Dubai airport, setting a plane and the infrastructure on fire.
Hive tool results showed that the video is likely to be AI-generated with an aggregated score of 84.3 per cent.
To further confirm the video’s authenticity, we uploaded the clip to Deepfake-O-Meter, and the tool gave strong indicators that it was created using AI.
Therefore, we conclude that the claims are false. All three videos are AI-generated.
