Fact Check:Viral image of toddler helplessly gazing at explosion is AI-generated

A heart-wrenching image showing a toddler helplessly gazing at an explosion is being widely circulated on social media.

The caption of the post reads: “Wake up my Muslim brother. Palestine is disappearing. Humanity is dying. Oh no, Israel!Damn Israel!#GazzeÖlüyor#gazzebombalanıyor.”

In the backdrop of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas conflict, this image is being shared widely to show the plight of people in Palestine.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false.

On closely analyzing the viral image, we found it dubious as to how the image could be so clear with such quality amidst such chaos and massive blast.

We further, ran the image through an AI detection website called Optic AI. As a result, we found that the image is AI-generated.

Taking this as a cue, we performed a reverse image taking the viral image. We found the image uploaded on a Turkish news official X handle 'gdh' dated 11th October 2023. Here, the image was captioned, 'Picture of life in Gaza drawn by Artificial Intelligence'. This confirms that the viral image is AI-generated.

However, if this image was a real one. It would be the saddest image on the internet.