Viral Video Claiming To Show Tel Aviv Airport In Ruins After Iran Strike Found To Be AI-Generated

Claim

Video claiming to show Israel’s Tel Aviv airport destroyed by Iranian missiles.

The archived version of the post can be seen here, which has clocked 6.8 million views so far.

Fact

Newschecker ran a keyword search for “Tel Aviv airport destroyed”, which did not lead us to credible news reports about such a strike, nor any footage resembling the viral video. Moreover, the lack of detail in the background, along with the overly glossy texture and that some planes remained unscathed by the purported missile strikes further raised our doubts on whether the 14-second video was AI-generated.

We ran the video past Hive Moderation, an AI-content detection tool, which stated that it was 83% likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content. Another AI-detection tool, Cantilux, stated that it was 95% likely to be AI-generated.  

A further search led us to the same video uploaded on Instagram on May 27, 2025, well before the recent escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict. Also, the bio of the account mentioned the word “Artificial Intelligence” in Arabic, while sharing several similar AI-generated videos, further confirming that the viral claim is false.

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

Sources
Hive Moderation tool
Cantilux tool
Instagram post, May 27, 2025