Old videos falsely circulated as Iran-Israel conflict footage
The Iran-Israel conflict has impacted geopolitics as well as social media. During the conflict, various scenes of the war spread across social media. In most cases, it is difficult for general users to verify the source, time of recording, and context of these videos. The news media is the place of trust in such cases.
A page named Nagorik ip TV, which identifies itself as a news media outlet, broadcast several videos as footage of the Iran-Israel conflict. Dismislab verified four such videos and found that, although they were broadcast last March with claims of depicting the contemporary situation of the conflict, they were scenes from different times and events.
First video
The description of a post, published on March 20, read, “Israel devastated and almost maddened by Iran’s attack!” The scenes in the first 15 seconds of the video are actually of a horrific explosion that occurred in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Upon conducting a reverse image search to verify the authenticity of the scenes, a report by the news agency Reuters was found. From the report, it is known that in the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, at least 215 people were killed, thousands of people were injured, and vast areas of the capital were damaged. Furthermore, the first 15 seconds of the video published by Nagorik ip Tv matches a video report published by the Germany-based international news outlet Deutsche Welle on August 4, 2020. That is, an old video of the 2020 Beirut explosion was falsely circulated as devastation in Israel.
By searching for the footage used in the 16 to 30-second section of the video, a video report published on March 21, 2024, on the official YouTube channel of the Turkish state broadcaster “TRT World” was found. The report shows scenes of the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza. The report states that just before Iftar, an Israeli airstrike destroyed an entire residential block in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
An analysis of the footage from 31 to 45 seconds of the video led to the discovery of a video report published on March 16, 2026, on the YouTube channel of Saudi Arabia-based media outlet AlHadath. The report stated that Israeli airstrikes had destroyed various infrastructure in the southern suburbs of Beirut, causing widespread devastation in the area. The footage used in the AlHadath report was found to be an exact match with the footage used in the Nagorik ip TV video.
The exact date of the attack could not be confirmed. However, it is worth noting that Israel carried out multiple attacks in Lebanon in March 2026.
Second video
The text in this post stated, “Iran is becoming frighteningly powerful! It is destroying European and Middle Eastern countries in one attack after another!” The on-screen text in the video read, “Watch until the end; how powerful Iran is, Iran is becoming terrifying, an astonished world, fighting alone against superpower countries.” Dismislab’s investigation reveals that the video primarily utilized older scenes from a different context of Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and Gaza.
A reverse image search was conducted using the keyframes from the first part of the video. A video published on March 7, 2026, on the official X account of the Lebanon-based independent news portal “Lebanon Debate” is found. This footage exactly matches the circulated video.
Upon further investigation, the same footage is also found in reports by the Turkish state news agency “Anadolu Agency” and the Lebanese news outlet “Al Lubnaniya”. The scenes in a video report published on the X handle of Al Lubnaniya exactly match the video from Nagorik ip TV.
According to information from Anadolu Agency, the Israeli military had issued a warning prior to an attack on the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon on March 7, 2026. This is not a scene of any Iranian attack, but rather footage of an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
Verifying the scenes in the video from the 38-second to the 1-minute 7-second mark reveals that these are scenes of the Gaza Strip from October 7, 2023. This section of the video matches a photograph used in a report published by the news outlet Al Jazeera on October 7, 2023. The report stated that in response to a military operation by the Palestinian armed group Hamas, Israel launched massive airstrikes on besieged Gaza that day. According to Gaza’s health officials, at least 198 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,600 were injured in those attacks.
Additionally, the section in question also matches a video report published on The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) YouTube channel on October 8, 2023. The Wall Street Journal’s caption states that this is a scene of the multi-story building “Palestine Tower” in Gaza collapsing due to an Israeli airstrike.
Third video
The video, published with the claim of an Iranian attack on a headquarters in Lebanon, shows scenes of explosions in several buildings. Verification has revealed that it utilizes older scenes of an Israeli attack on a financial institution named Al-Qard Al-Hasan in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Conducting a reverse image search using various keyframes of the video, a video report published on MTV Lebanon News on March 9, 2026, is found. That report shows scenes of an attack on a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hasan in Lebanon. The scenes in the report exactly match the broadcast video.
A report published in Al Jazeera on March 9, 2026, regarding this matter is also found. The report states that the Israeli military carried out an attack on a financial institution named Al-Qard Al-Hasan in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Earlier, in a statement, the Israeli military had announced the targeting of branches of this Hezbollah-affiliated charity organization.
Therefore, the broadcast video is a scene of the Israeli attack on the Al-Qard Al-Hasan financial institution in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. It is not a scene of an Iranian attack in Lebanon.
Fourth video
Published on March 12, this Nagorik ip TV video claimed, “Israel has turned into a ruined city due to Iran’s attack. See what the consequence has been.” However, an investigation by Dismislab found that the first part of this 52-second video featured scenes of an Israeli attack in Lebanon. Although the latter part contained actual scenes of an Iranian attack on Israel, those were not from any incident in 2026, but from 2025.
Analyzing the scenes in the first 32 seconds of the video, it is evident that this is not a scene of any Iranian attack on Israel. This section matches a photograph in a report published by the news outlet The Guardian on March 11, 2026. According to the report, this is a scene of a destroyed building in the Aisha Bakkar area of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The report stated that Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that “enemies targeted” an apartment in the Aisha Bakkar area of central Beirut. A video report containing the identical scene is also found on Al Jazeera’s official YouTube channel. The report stated that four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in central Beirut as the conflict with Hezbollah intensified. Therefore, the first part of the video is essentially a scene of an Israeli attack in Beirut, Lebanon.
On the other hand, conducting a reverse image search using the keyframes of the scenes from the 33-second to the 52-second mark of the video yields multiple reports published in international media, which are indeed of Iranian attacks on Israel, but those are of older events. A video report published on CNN on June 20, 2025, shows scenes of rescue operations following an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan of Tel Aviv, Israel, which exactly matches the final portion of the video.
A video report published in The Washington Post on June 19, 2025, stated that rescue workers and military personnel were inspecting the site of a direct hit by an Iranian missile in Ramat Gan. Additionally, photographs from a report published on the same day in Spain’s state news agency EFE exactly match several frames of the video. This report also stated that it is a scene of an Iranian missile attack on a hospital located in the Beersheba region of southern Israel.
The conflict between Iran and Israel is a real event, and its humanitarian and geopolitical impacts are profound. However, broadcasting videos of different scenes or events to illustrate the horrors of the war violates journalistic ethics. Moreover, in such a sensitive situation, uncovering the truth of fake news without denying the horrors of the actual war is quite challenging.
According to BBC Verify, the greatest risk of debunking the authenticity of a video or image during a war is that the general public might assume fact-checkers are implying, “nothing bad is happening there.” To avoid this misunderstanding, it is advised to present the fact-check while keeping it within the framework of the harsh reality of the conflict. A clear message is conveyed to the readers: “The situation on the ground is indeed horrific, but this specific video is not proof of that.”
Similarly, according to experts on international fact-checking, directly labeling any content as “fake” during an ongoing war might seem insensitive toward the victims. Instead, it is more logical to use the label “irrelevant”. This maintains respect for both parties—the victims of the current war and the victims of the past event.
AFP has stated in its policy that its goal is not to claim that no war or attack is taking place; rather, it is to ensure whether a specific piece of media or video accurately represents that event. Furthermore, the “Context Standard” of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) states that omitting the main factual event or context when verifying information in a conflict situation provides a ‘false signal’ to the reader. Therefore, in the case of objective fact-checking, it is mandatory to uphold the relevance and sensitivity of both situations—the actual war and the past tragedy.
