By Yemi Sodeeq
Source: X
Claim: An X user on Sunday, April 14, 2024 posted a picture claiming Iran’s missile attack on Israel.
Verdict: Misleading. DUBAWA’s findings reveal that the photo used is AI generated.
Full text
Iran unleashed an attack on Israel between the night of Saturday April 13,2024 and early on Sunday, April 14. The attack lasted about five hours, according to United States officials.This is suspected to be a retaliation for an Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus which killed 13 people.
Daniel Hagari,Israel’s chief military spokesman, said Iran’s attack involved more than 120 ballistic missiles, 170 drones and more than 30 cruise missiles, according to a report by The Associated Press news agency.
The aftermath of the event has generated several claims and counterclaims online, including photos used for illustration of the event.
An X user @Nadira_ali12 posted a photo to depict Iran’s attack on Israel on Sunday, April 14, 2024.
“Iran’s attack on Israel is the longest range attack in history🔥,” the post was captioned.
As at Tuesday, April 16, 2024, the post had garnered over 67,000 views,1,208 likes, 310 comments and 216 reposts.
The same photo was posted by an X user, @gani_jonathan on Saturday, April 13, 2024.
The user posted “Over 100 drones from Iran to hit Israel in a couple of hours. I pray this doesn’t deteriorate into World War 3,” the post was captioned
Meanwhile, another X user, @moKapendi, also posted the same photo on 13th April, 2024 and said; “Is this an AI Generated image or Iran just got bigger balls? Interesting days ahead.😳Israel Palestine America Russia.”
Dubawa decided to verify the authenticity of the image due to the engagement of the posts and also the contradictory claims and representation of the image by the X users.
Verification
Dubawa conducted a Google reverse image search to find the origin of the photo and discovered that it had been circulating online before Iran’s attack on Israel.
Dubawa discovered the photo was posted by an X user @army20300 on February 28, 2024 with another caption.
Although posted with Arabic language, when translated by Google, the post reads ” Yesterday, our drones clashed with the new European coalition, the shield coalition along with the criminal American-British alliance . The seabed is ready for war.”
Also, a search for how Iran attacked Israel on several reputable news websites also gave a stark contrast.
Dubawa observed that a publication on Aljazeera indicated that the attack happened in the night as against the photo which suggests the event took place in the afternoon.
A screenshot of Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel. Source: Aljazeera.
Also, in a report by Reuters, an anti missile system was also observed to be operated in defense of Israel.
Also merely looking at the photo, it depicts several fighter planes which contrast missiles and drones firing claimed by major news outlets.
An anti-missile system operates after Iran launched drones and missiles toward Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, April 14. Source: Amir Cohen/REUTERS
Also, DUBAWA subjected the image to Artificial intelligence detectors tools.
According to an AI image detector Hive Moderation, it concludes that there was a 98.6% likelihood that the image was AI-generated or deep fake content.
Hive Moderation AI detector results
When the image was also placed into Content at Scale, the tool puts the AI status of the image at 99%. This also suggests that the image is AI generated.
Content Scale AI detector result
Conclusion
The photo used to illustrate Iran’s attack on Israel is misleading. According to several verification tools, the image is AI generated. Also, it is in contrast to several photos released via reputable news media.
This report was produced for DUBAWA 2024 Kwame KariKari Fellowship in partnership with The Informant247 to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.