Fact Check: Tel Aviv Airport destroyed in Iranian strike? No, video is AI-generated

Hyderabad: Tensions between Israel and Iran reached new heights on June 15, as both nations exchanged strikes for a third day. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) launched what they called a series of extensive attacks targeting Iran’s Defence Ministry and SPND nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed retaliatory strikes on Israel’s energy infrastructure and jet fuel depots. Sirens blared across Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as the region braced for further escalation.

Amid this chaos, a video began circulating on social media, claiming to show Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport in ruins following an Iranian missile strike.

An X user shared the video with the caption, “This is not AI, this is real TelAviv Airport, you can confirm with Grok “ (Archive)

The video shows a massive airport terminal in disarray, with collapsed jet bridges, burning wreckage and scattered debris. A city skyline is visible in the background, with the label ‘Tel Aviv’ overlaid on the screen, seemingly confirming the location.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is AI-generated and not from any real incident.

To verify the authenticity of the video, we closely analysed its visuals.

Despite its dramatic presentation, the destruction shown appeared unnaturally symmetrical with uniformly scattered debris, evenly billowing smoke and an odd stillness in what should have been a chaotic scene. These telltale signs hinted at artificial generation.

Next, we ran the video through Hive Moderation, an AI-detection tool, which returned a high AI probability score of 80.4 per cent, suggesting strong signs of synthetic generation.

Further, we conducted a reverse image search on a frame from the video and traced it back to an Instagram post, dated May 27, 2025, well before the current round of conflict.

The Instagram account mentioned in its bio that it creates content using Artificial Intelligence. Several other videos on the same page carry similar AI traits.

To confirm, we also compared the visuals with a real aerial image of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport available on aviation stock sites.

The differences were that the layout, skyline and infrastructure shown in the viral clip do not match the actual airport. We did not find reports of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport being destroyed in a

The claim that the video shows Tel Aviv Airport destroyed in an Iranian strike is false. The footage is AI-generated and does not depict a real incident.