AI-Generated Visuals Falsely Shared As Iranian Strike On Mossad HQ

Amid Iranian state media reports that their missiles have struck Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, a set of visuals is going viral claiming to show the strikes and the damaged building, even as Israel has reportedly downplayed them by highlighting damage to a nearby bus parking lot.

While one of the viral images claims to show a captured Mossad agent, who was purportedly bound to a missile and dispatched to Mossad’s headquarters after he was apprehended in Iran, a short video and photo allegedly showing an Iranian hypersonic missile obliterating the headquarters are also widely in circulation. The archived versions of the posts can be seen here, here and here.

Fact Check

Newschecker noticed the overly glossy texture of the visuals and the misspelling of “Mossad” as “Mosad” in the purported photo of the destroyed building, all signs pointing towards AI-generated imagery.

Video 1

Newschecker ran the video past Cantilux, an AI-content detector, which said there was 81% probability of the video being AI-generated. We ran a screengrab past WasitAI, an AI-image detector, which stated that it was confident that the image, or significant part of it, was created by AI.

A further search led us to the same eight-second video uploaded on TikTok, dated May 18, 2025, by a user, everythingai97, which has been labelled as AI-generated.

Image 1

Apart from noting the incorrect spelling of Mossad on the viral image, Newschecker ran it past WasitAI, which stated that it was confident that the image, or significant part of it, was created by AI.

We also came across this June 17, 2025 LeadStories report on the viral image, also stating that it was likely generated by AI.

Image 2

We ran the image past Hive Moderation, an AI-content detector, which stated that it was 99.9% likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content. Similarly, the SightEngine tool stated that it was 99% likely AI-generated.

Also Read: Viral Video Shows Egyptian Mummy, Not Body Of Vijay Rupani

Conclusion

Viral visuals claiming to be linked to Iran’s alleged missile strikes on Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad’s headquarters in Tel Aviv were found to be AI-generated.

Sources
WasitAI tool
Hive Moderation tool
SightEngine tool
Cantilux tool
Tiktok post, May 18, 2025