Does a real video show Iranian rockets coming in at a tremendous speed, exploding targets near the Tel Aviv marina? No, that's not true: This video is fake and bears many of the hallmarks of AI-generated imagery. The video is represented as showing Tel Aviv, Israel, but the marina does not look like the waterfront of that city. There is also a distinctive skyscraper which bears an uncanny resemblance to a hotel in Dubai, but does not resemble any waterfront building in Tel Aviv.
The fake video appeared in a post (archived here) published on X by @AHM3D_HAMDAN on March 3, 2026. The Arabic caption was translated to English by Grok. It reads:
Iranian rockets and explosions in Tel Aviv
A fierce night, may God guide the shots, O Lord 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
This is a screenshot from the start of the 10-second video:
(Image source: post of @AHM3D_HAMDAN on X.)
The video shows inconsistencies commonly found in AI-generated videos. A flag of Israel flies on the balcony of this scene -- as if the prompt instructed to show a scene in Israel. The flag is flapping in the breeze, but the flag pole vibrates as if there are gale force winds. The light of the incoming rocket is not rendered as a reflection in the water, but the reflection of the explosion does show.
The real beaches of Tel Aviv, Israel are shielded by a series of rock breakwaters. There is only one marina, and it is almost completely surrounded by a breakwater with only a small opening for the boats to pass. Beyond the marina breakwater is the open Mediterranean Sea with the nearest land being Cyprus, at least 150 miles away. The marina visible in the AI-generated video does not have a breakwater. Beyond the boats and docks there appears to be another spit of land illuminated by city lights, and beyond that another coastline with lights. This is not a real video of the city of Tel Aviv.
A drone video (archived here) posted on YouTube on March 10, 2021 titled "Tel Aviv Marina and Port Areas" opens with an aerial video of the Marina and gives a slow pan across the waterfront architecture (embedded below). There is no structure resembling the upright silver leaf shaped building which appears dramatically illuminated on the right side of the fake video. Lead Stories used Instant Street View (archived here) and Google Earth Pro to verify that this building had not been constructed since the drone video was filmed in 2021.
Lead Stories cropped the screenshot of the AI-generated video and searched for a match with Google Lens (archived here). Google Lens returned both an AI overview and visual matches suggesting the building resembled the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (pictured below). The architecture of this hotel is famous for resembling the sail of a ship. The hotel is built on its own artificial island, connected to Dubai by a bridge. Although the AI-generated building does resemble the hotel, the setting is quite different. This is not a real video of Tel Aviv, Israel or Dubai, UAE.
(Image Source: Google.)
A search (archived here) on Google News for Burj Al Arab shows reports from Feb. 28, 2026 that the hotel was damaged by falling debris from an Iranian drone.
