Did Iran bomb an Israeli power plant? No, AI-generated videos go viral

HYDERABAD: According to CNN’s latest report on the US-Israel-Iran war dated March 24, US President Donald Trump has said that an agreement has been reached between the US and Iran. They also announced that the strike would be postponed for five days.

However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied this and said there was no dialogue with the US government.

A related video circulating on social media shows a missile hitting what appears to be a power plant. Those who shared the video claim it shows an Iranian missile causing destruction to Israel.

Instagram users shared the video with a lengthy caption detailing rising tensions in the Middle East. Part of the text related to the video reads: “Iranian military officers destroyed Israeli buildings without regard for their own lives…” (archive).

The caption ends with the following note: “In such an information-intensive environment, trust verified sources and avoid spreading unverified video clips and reports that may incite unnecessary panic.” The post has received over 6,25,000 views and over 13,000 likes.

But are the videos real and are users following their own advice?

fact check

NewsMeter found this claim to be false. The video is fake. This is an AI-generated video that was mistakenly shared as an Iranian missile attack on Israel.

Video analysis

We carefully reviewed the video and found several anomalies that suggest it was generated using AI.

Repeated textures make explosions look unnatural. The perfectly formed mushroom cloud from the explosion looks synthetic. Fire and smoke do not interact realistically with the surrounding environment. There are structural inconsistencies, such as buildings changing shapes and debris appearing to float instead of falling naturally.

AI detection tool

Additionally, we used AI tools to analyze the videos.

AI detection tool Hive Moderation found that there is a 99.9% chance that the video was generated using AI. It also flagged that most of the frames in the video were generated by AI.

When we uploaded this video to the AI ​​detection tool Deepfake-O-Meter, we received strong indicators that the video was generated by AI.

Furthermore, there are no reliable reports of Iranian airstrikes against Israeli power plants.

Therefore, we conclude that this claim is false.