Iranian propagandists have created a chilling AI video showing an explosive missile strike on Israel, captioned “ready for the Zionists.” In a video shared on Telegram by the Iranian Cyber Corps Channel, the one-minute clip supposedly shows Khorramshahr-4 ballistic missiles, named after the Iranian city of the same name, which are capable of carrying a 1,800-kilogram warhead, launching before crashing into Israeli territory.
This is not the first time Iran has used AI amid its ongoing tensions with Israel. After Iran struck Israel with barrages of missiles on June 14 in retaliation for a massive onslaught against its nuclear and military facilities that killed top generals and nuclear scientists, AI-generated videos were falsely shared in posts claiming they showed how Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion International Airport had been damaged. The clips were originally posted by a TikTok account that creates AI content.
“This is not AI, this is the real Tel Aviv airport,” reads the Thai-language caption of a video purportedly showing a heavily damaged airport shared on Facebook on June 15. It went on to say users can verify the clip’s authenticity using AI chatbots such as Grok – which is known for its mixed reliability.
Arabic-language text in the video’s top-right corner read: “Tel Aviv”.
A similar video, purportedly showing damaged and crumbling buildings, shared on Instagram by a Pakistan-based user on June 14 was captioned: “A glimpse of Tel Aviv, the Zionist war-mongers’ capital”.
According to BBC Verify at the time, one organisation analysing open-source imagery described the volume of disinformation online as “astonishing” and accused some “engagement farmers” of seeking to profit from the conflict by sharing misleading content designed to attract attention.
“We are seeing everything from unrelated footage from Pakistan, to recycled videos from the October 2024 strikes—some of which have amassed over 20 million views—as well as game clips and AI-generated content being passed off as real events,” Geoconfirmed, the online verification group, wrote on X.
One widely shared post claimed to show a jet damaged after being shot down in the Iranian desert. However, signs of AI manipulation were evident: civilians around the jet were the same size as nearby vehicles, while the sand showed no impact.