AI image of 'burnt Mossad headquarters' falsely circulates as genuine

"The Almighty has turned Israel itself into Gaza; Iran's blown Israel's most powerful agency, Mossad, into thin air," reads a Hindi-language post shared on X on June 17, 2025. 

The post includes an image of a charred building bearing the word "Mosad". It also shows Israeli flags. 

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Screenshot of the false X post taken June 20, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

Similar posts on Facebook and X also falsely portrayed the image as a genuine scene from the unprecedented exchange of attacks that have killed 627 in Iran and 28 in Israel (archived link).

The Middle East adversaries traded deadly fire in their most intense confrontation in history since Israel carried out surprise strikes against Iran, targeting nuclear and military sites (archived link). 

Tehran has said its targets in Israel included "sensitive" security sites, claiming attacks on the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency and air force bases (archived link). 

The United States, joining its ally Israel's military campaign against Iran, attacked an underground uranium enrichment centre with massive bunker-busting bombs and hit two other nuclear facilities. 

US President Donald Trump announced on June 23 that Iran and Israel had agreed to a staggered ceasefire (archived link). 

But the image came from a video that is AI-generated. 

AI-generated content

A reverse image search using keyframes led to a TikTok video which is clearly labelled as AI-generated content.

Although the original post has been deleted, the viral image can be seen at the 16-second mark in the archived version of the TikTok video. Below is the screenshot of the image with the word "AI-generated" highlighted by AFP. 

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Screenshot of the TikTok video taken on June 20, 2025, AI label highlighted by AFP

The videos on this TikTok account are labelled as AI-generated (archived link). 

The building in the image also has the word "Mosad,"but the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations in Tel Aviv is known as Mossad (archived link). 

Such mistakes still occur despite the meteoric rise in generative AI technology and are a tell-tale sign that visuals are inauthentic. 

AFP has debunked a similar claim that a video shows the burning Mossad building here and other misinformation related to the Iran-Israel conflict here. 

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