Two AI-generated visuals of destruction of buildings are being falsely shared as real footage of the headquarters of Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, being struck by Iranian missiles.
Tensions in the Middle East are rising as Iran and Israel engage in direct conflict following Israel’s June 13 attack, citing Iran’s nuclear activities. On June 17, Iranian news agency Tasnim News Agency published a statement by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps on "a successful missile attack on a major center" of Mossad. While Israel has not acknowledged any attack on the Mossad headquarters, an IDF official told the media that certain military targets were hit by Iranian strikes..
The Claim
One such post features two visuals: one showing a damaged building with the word 'Mosad' written on it, and another showing an explosion at a high-rise building.
Sharing these visuals, a verified X user wrote, "Israel bombed Iran’s top news station HQ yesterday. Iran responded by bombing the script-writing HQ of all Western mainstream media outlets: Mossad HQ & IDF Unit 8200".
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
What We Found: AI-Generated Visuals
BOOM found the visuals to be fake and created using artificial intelligence.
Photo of 'Mosad' Building
1. Spelling Error in Mossad's Name: In the viral image, the name of Israel’s national intelligence agency, Mossad, is misspelled as "Mosad".
2. AI Detection Tool Flags the Image: We analysed the image using detection tool Was It AI, which indicated that "the image, or a significant portion of it," was generated by artificial intelligence.
Explosion at High-Rise Building
1. Discrepancies in the Video: On close observation, we noticed that the rubble caused by the blast disappears after a certain point indicating the presence of AI manipulation. The visuals from the viral video are shown below.
2. Video Is Old, Unrelated: We extracted keyframes from the video and performed a reverse image search, which revealed that the video predates the recent Iran-Israel conflict that began in June this year. Additionally, we also found that the same video was uploaded by a TikTok user on May 18, 2025, stating that it was made using artificial intelligence.
3. AI Detector Tools Confirm the Same: Based on this lead, we tested the keyframes using AI detection tools like "Was It AI" and "AI or Not" — both confirmed that the video was generated using artificial intelligence. BOOM also sent the video to experts at the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU), who tested the video using Hive's AI image and deepfake classifier, which reached the same conclusion and indicated that the AI visual generator tool Midjourney may have been used to create the video.
