What was claimed
A video shows an airport in Tel Aviv destroyed by Iran.
Our verdict
This video isn’t real. It has probably been generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Tel Aviv airport hasn’t been destroyed.
Video does not show ‘destroyed’ Israeli airport
A video compilation with captions claiming it shows Tel Aviv’s airport destroyed by Iran has most likely been created with artificial intelligence.
The footage is circulating on Facebook with the caption: “This is not AI generatedor video game, This is an airport in Tel Aviv destroyed by Iran [sic].”
It shows aerial shots of several planes on the apron of an airport, the main building of which is severely damaged, with a location icon and text in Arabic saying “Tel Aviv”.
However, this is not a genuine video.
Full Fact traced the same video to an account on Instagram on 27 May.
This was before the latest conflict between Israel and Iran began on 13 June.
While it appears to show a realistic scene, the layout of the airport does not match that of Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, which is also some distance away from the city, contrary to how it is presented in the video where skyscrapers appear relatively close by.
This account has also shared a number of other videos which are also likely to be AI creations, including one supposedly showing destroyed buildings in Tel Aviv which we previously fact checked, and which an expert told us had signs of being AI-generated.
According to Iranian state-sponsored media, Iran has claimed to have attacked Ben Gurion airport on at least two occasions in recent weeks, but we have seen no evidence at this stage that the airport has been damaged, let alone severely.
On 3 May, the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen, fired a missile which landed near the main terminal of Ben Gurion airport. The airport recently partially reopened to flights after closing following the exchange of strikes between Israel and Iran.
Since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Iran conflict, we have seen misleading content, including other AI-generated media, circulating widely online. Before sharing posts that you see on social media it’s important to consider whether the claims they are making come from a trustworthy source, or whether they could contain misinformation. Our guides to spotting misleading videos and AI content can help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as altered because the video has probably been generated with artificial intelligence (AI).