Iran killed 16,500 Israeli soldiers? No, AI-generated videos go viral

HYDERABAD: A video circulating on social media shows a man reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel, purporting to say that more than 16,500 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Iranian attacks.

This video is being shared in the context of the ongoing escalation between Iran and Israel.

The viral video shows a man running and recording his voice saying: “They are doing it… They are killing our people in the dark. 16,500 people have been killed.” In the background, several cars can be seen with sirens blaring.

Several users shared the short clip on X, writing: “Directly from the scene in Tel Aviv, this man says his country has suffered its most devastating attack, with over 16,500 soldiers killed in an Iranian attack. (sic).”

One such post with the same caption received over 1.49 million views and 4,700 likes. (archive)

NewsMeter found this claim to be false. An AI-generated video was mistakenly shared as footage of Tel Aviv under attack.

Viral video analysis

We carefully reviewed the video and identified several visual anomalies characteristic of generative AI. This man’s teeth appear unnaturally misshapen and blend together while he speaks. The star on the pendant around her neck is unstable, flickering, losing its geometric shape. Background elements are inconsistent and appear to bleed or blend into their surroundings.

The video was uploaded to the Hive AI content detection tool for further analysis.

The tool flagged several time frames where the probability of the video being generated by AI was greater than 90%. Overall, the tool detected that a video was generated by AI 59.7% of the time.

Deepfake-O-Meter, another AI content detection tool, also showed strong indications that the video was generated by AI.

This confirms that the video is artificially created and does not depict a real incident.

Origin of video

To find the source of the AI ​​video, a reverse image search of the clip’s keyframes revealed it was originally shared on Instagram on January 19th by the handle Shai Friedman. The creator added an AI label to the video to indicate it was generated using AI.

We also saw a comment in which one user said the video was “100 percent AI.” In response, the creator admitted that the video was indeed created using AI.

Shai Friedman, whose handle is Shai Friedman, creates AI-generated content, as described in his profile. He has appeared in different roles in multiple videos.

In the original video, the creator was referring to the 16,500 people killed in Iran, not Israel. The AI-generated video was posted with the caption: “Liberate Iran!!! Where are you, world??? (sic).”

What did the Israeli media report?

According to a March 22 report in the Hindustan Times, the Israeli government confirmed that only 13 people had died in the country.

There are no reports that 16,500 Israeli soldiers were killed by Iran. Therefore, we conclude that this claim is false.