Fact Check: AI photo of Israeli Army dog attacking elderly Palestinian woman shared as real

Hyderabad: Against the backdrop of the ongoing Israel-Palestine war, a photo of an elderly Palestinian woman being attacked by a dog has gone viral.

A Facebook user shared the image with the caption, “Not a scene from a movie.”

The same claim appeared here and here. A similar post can be seen here.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that claim is misleading. The incident did occur but the image is AI-generated.

Upon examination, the angle and the graphical aesthetics of the photo suggested that the photo might be AI-generated. Further inspection of the image revealed a watermark - IN.VISUALART - indicating its origin.

The ‘Ps+ Ai’ notation signified that the image was created using Artificial Intelligence.

A keyword search led to an Instagram post from six days ago, where the same photo was shared with a caption stating, “Al-Jazeera obtained leaked footage from a camera mounted by occupation soldiers on a police dog showing the dog attacking an elderly Palestinian woman in her home during an operation the occupation army was about to carry out in Jebalia camp weeks ago. Stop genocide - Ceasefire now- Save Gaza- free Palestine.”

Further investigation using relevant keywords uncovered a 56-second video published by Al Jazeera English on YouTube, titled ‘Israeli military dog attacks elderly Palestinian woman | #AJshorts,’ providing visual evidence of the actual incident.

A follow-up video on the same channel, with the caption “Video shows Israeli military dog mauling elderly Palestinian woman amid army operation in Jabalia,” featured the elderly woman speaking about the attack.

Different news outlets, including the Palestine Chronicle, reported the incident with the title “‘Israelis Set a Dog on Me’ – Video Shows Army Unleashing Dog on Elderly Palestinian Woman.”

Hence, the claim is misleading. Although the incident did occur, the viral photo was created using Artificial Intelligence.