Since the past weekend, Israel and Hezbollah have engaged in the most intense exchange of fire one year into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The armed wing of the Iran-backed Shiite political party and militant group, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, fired projectiles deeper into Israeli territory than ever before.

On Saturday, Israel launched waves of strikes against Hezbollah targets, describing the action as preemptive to thwart a planned attack. Hezbollah, in turn, fired a barrage of rockets and other projectiles at Israel, claiming it was in retaliation for Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

Lebanon's Health Ministry reported at least 569 people killed, including 50 children, and more than 1,800 wounded since Monday.

The recent escalation between Israel and Hezbollah has also fueled a surge of misleading content. A recurrent theme in social media posts involves manipulated visuals claiming to show Hezbollah's attacks on Israel. Often out of context or entirely unrelated, these videos have gone viral on social media platforms. DW Fact check investigated some of these viral claims.

Does this image show the aftermath of a Hezbollah attack on Ramat David airbase?

Claim: "Despite Israel's hermetic military censorship. A photograph was leaked of the Ramat David base, which was attacked by Hezbollah at dawn today. Israel does not acknowledge that anything has happened at this air base," reads the caption of a viral image circulating on social media. The image shows a large aircraft engulfed in flames, surrounded by vehicles at an airport, with military trucks and personnel scattered in the scene.

The image has been shared across multiple platforms, including  X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, and Threads, reaching users in several languages, including Arabic.

DW Fact check: Fake.

Israeli media have reported on the attack at Ramat David airbase in the North of the country, which occurred on Sunday morning. However, there are clear indications that the image being shared is AI-generated.

One of the most prominent signs of this being AI-generated content is the blurry and indecipherable text. The vehicle in the middle, closer to the camera, shows what appears to be writing on its side, but the text is distorted and unreadable. Some characters resemble Hebrew letters, but others don't make any sense. This is a common AI flaw, known as a "hallucination," which occurs when the system creates elements that don't exist or don't make sense in the real world.

The image also shows multiple visual distortions, particularly in the shapes and outlines of objects. The truck in the foreground has an awkward curve in its loading section. The vehicles closest to the plane seem fused, with their outlines merging unnaturally, making them difficult to distinguish. Most military vehicles in the image look unrealistic. Such errors are typical in AI-generated images.

Also, the aircraft's wing appears misaligned, and its body has an odd bump. Even more telling is the unrealistic clarity of the flames in the image, which contrasts with the somewhat blurry and distorted vehicles and other surrounding details.

The inconsistencies strongly indicate that the image is AI-generated rather than an authentic photograph of a real attack on the Ramat David airbase.

DW Fact check conducted an analysis using Truemedia, a nonprofit tool specialized in detecting political deepfakes on social media. The tool's digital analysis uncovered substantial signs of manipulation, which the platform later corroborated by human experts.

Footage of fireworks in Algeria and fire in Indonesia claimed to show Israel under attack

Claim: A viral post shared on September 22 reads, "Hezbollah turned Israel to Isra-Hell," accompanied by a minute-long video. The video is a compilation of several unrelated clips, with sounds of gunfire, sirens, and screaming added throughout the video to create a sense of continuity. The first few seconds show glowing lights illuminating the night sky in a public space, while the second part depicts scenes of chaos, with areas engulfed in flames at night.

The post has been widely circulated in multiple languages, including English, Arabic, Urdu and Hindi,all suggesting the video shows the aftermath of a Hezbollah missile attack on Israel.

DW Fact check: False.

A reverse image search of a screenshot from the first part of the clip reveals that the video is not from the recent conflict. It originates from Algeria and shows the celebrations of the 103rd anniversary of the Mouloud d'Alger soccer club — not military action.

There are more videos of the same event online, which show the police officers in uniforms labeled "G.I.P," consistent with those of Algerian law enforcement. And these celebrations took place at the beginning of August.

The same applies to other parts of the clips. They are also unrelated to the current conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and have been circulating for at least two years, previously claiming to show a fire in an Indonesian rural area. 

DW could not verify the exact locations where the videos were filmed. However, the fact that the clips are at least two years old confirms they have no connection to the ongoing hostilities. 

Some clips have been mirrored from original versions, making reverse image searches more difficult and complicating efforts to track down the original sources of the images.

We were unable to track down prior publications for one segment of the clip. 

Footage of Russian oil refinery attack misrepresented as Hezbollah drone strike

Claim: "Hezbollah drones reached the oil refineries in the north of occupied Palestine," claims a post on X. Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli groups refer to Israel as "occupied Palestine" because they do not recognize it as a legitimate country. Attached to the post is a video purportedly showing a drone flying over an industrial site, striking part of the facility, and exploding. The footage has been shared by numerous accounts on X with similar claims.

DW Fact check: False.

A reverse image search of a screenshot from the video reveals it dates back to the end of July. The footage actually shows a Ukrainian drone attack on an oil refinery in Tuapse, located in the Krasnodar region of Russia, approximately two months ago.

Hezbollah has claimed it targeted several Israeli military installations on Tuesday, including an explosives factory 60 kilometers (37 miles) into Israel. 

The militant group also reportedly launched a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv. While the Israeli military intercepted the surface-to-surface missile, there were no reports of casualties or damage. This marked the first time a projectile fired from Lebanon had reached central Israel, according to the Israeli military.

However, many images circulating online that claim to show the aftermath of these attacks are fake.

Emad Hassan and Tilman Wagner contributed to this report.

Edited by: Uta Steinwehr, Rachel Baig