Old unrealistic video shared as Iran firing a hypersonic missile at Israel
A video circulating on social media claims to show Iran firing a hypersonic missile toward Israel during the escalation that began on February 28. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found the claim false. The footage was already online well before the recent Iran–Israel confrontation.
Two verified Facebook pages identifying themselves as news outlets—BD24report and Daily Priyotimes—posted the video with the caption: “Iran fires a hypersonic missile toward Israel.” The post from BD24report had more than 140,000 views and 9,000 reactions as of publication.
Several other Facebook accounts (1, 2, 3) shared the same video with the same claim.
Journalist Zulkarnain Saer Khan also posted the footage on his verified Facebook profile, calling it the “alleged” video of Iran’s hypersonic missile strike. In the caption, he described the weapons as ballistic missiles equipped with hypersonic glide vehicles capable of traveling at Mach 5 to 15. In a comment, he cited the AI chatbot Grok as “the quickest way to verify” the clip and said it “seemed credible.” His post has been viewed more than 2 million times, shared over 5,000 times and has more than 60,000 reactions.
User comments ranged from enthusiastic endorsement—“Hypersonic moves faster than sound”—to scepticism—“Looks like AI.”
At the start of the footage, a dark residential area is visible with low buildings, parked cars and streetlights. Suddenly several bright red, fast‑moving streaks appear in the cloudy night sky, leaving long laser‑like trails and accompanied by loud swooshing noises.
The same video has spread on YouTube (1, 2, 3) and X with identical claims.
Reverse‑image and keyword searches show the clips were posted online before the Iran–Israel conflict reignited on February 28. Two TikTok accounts posted the earliest versions. The first, from The X Files 72, was uploaded on February 19 with the caption: “No explanation. Just repeated sightings across the sky.” The second, from Archive Available, was uploaded on February 7 with the caption: “Multiple people have sent videos like this over the past few weeks. Different places. Same phenomenon. Still no clear explanation.”
Neither account responded to commenters asking about the footage’s origin. Many viewers suggested the visuals were AI‑generated. Both accounts regularly post space‑related or “mysterious sky phenomenon” videos.
Further analysis of the two TikTok accounts shows that they regularly post various types of videos related to space and spacecraft (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
The Archive Available account links to a subscription website archiving unexplained sky events. A disclaimer on the site states: “Nothing here is presented as fact or theory; no explanations are provided.” The platform offers “private archive” access for £5 per month, indicating it is a commercial site for sky‑phenomena enthusiasts, not a source of verified information.
The United States and Israel began airstrikes inside multiple Iranian cities on February 28. Iran conducted retaliatory strikes on U.S. bases in the Middle East afterward. Because the viral video was online days before that, it cannot depict any real missile exchange between Iran and Israel.
A keyword search for missile launches between February 1–20 found no reports from any international news outlet or defense agency matching the footage.
Visual inconsistencies
The footage contains inconsistencies indicating it is fabricated or manipulated. In the second clip, several “stars” move erratically—suggesting digital effects. Secondly, according to the laws of physics, both clips contain significant inconsistencies that are not possible in reality.
According to information from NASA’s website, an object is considered hypersonic when it travels at more than five times the speed of sound (above Mach 5). Mach is the unit used to measure the speed of sound. Mach 1 refers to the normal speed of sound in air—about 343 meters per second, or roughly 1,234.8 kilometers per hour. Based on that, a hypersonic missile with a minimum speed of Mach 5 can travel at five times the speed of sound.
If an object were to pass at Mach 5 at a distance of around 5 kilometers from an observer, it would be visible almost instantly, since light travels much faster — about 300,000 kilometers per second.
But because sound travels at only about 343 meters per second, it would take roughly 14.6 seconds for the sound to reach the observer from that same distance.
However, in both clips of the viral video, the sound is heard at the exact same moment the red, light‑like objects appear. This is unrealistic not only under normal circumstances but also for a hypersonic missile, given the enormous difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound.
In other words, the scenes shown in the video do not depict an Iranian hypersonic missile fired toward Israel, as claimed. The footage had already been circulating on social media well before the recent Iran‑Israel conflict began.
