FACT-CHECK: AI-GENERATED IMAGE PORTRAYED AS ISRAEL’S DISPLACED CAMPS

Wed 16 October 2024:

Claim: On social media, an image of multiple blue and white tents set up along a beach, some of which bear the Star of David, has gone viral. Many X (formerly known as Twitter) and WhatsApp users have posted this image, claiming that it shows a tent camp in Israel’s Eilat built up by the Israeli government to house displaced citizens.

What comments are people making? The picture is being circulated with the claim that it depicts a tent camp near Eilat, Israel, established by the government of Israel to house its displaced residents.

(Archives of more claims on social media can be seen here and here.)

Fact: Is it true?: No, the image has been created using AI tools.

Is the photo real?: On carefully observing the photo, we noticed some inconsistencies.

Firstly, the flag in the upper-right part of the image, carries two poorly drawn Stars of David, and not one, like the Israeli flag.

While there are tent camps for people displaced by the war, this photo does not show a camp in Eilat, Israel.

The Israeli national flag is white and blue, with a single Star of David.

Next, we saw that despite the weather being sunny and warm in Israel, especially in Eilat, where some claims suggest that this photo was taken, most people appear to be wearing thick, winter clothes.

While there are tent camps for people displaced by the war, this photo does not show a camp in Eilat, Israel.

Day temperatures in Eilat range from 25°C to 34°C, but most people are wearing winter clothes.

Additionally, the overall image looks oddly smooth, unlike regular photographs.

We ran the image through AI-generated image detection tools, such as Optic’s AI or Not and Huggingface, both of which told us that the image was likely generated by AI.

Both said that the image was likely generated by AI.

Using Stable Diffusion’s web version, we attempted to generate images like the claim. One can see that several similar photographs were created using prompts given to the AI tool.

While there are tent camps for people displaced by the war, this photo does not show a camp in Eilat, Israel.