New video posted to social media from southern Gaza became the center of a heated internet debate about whether it was generated using artificial intelligence.
The video, which started circulating Tuesday, shows a person in a camouflage-print face covering and baseball cap making a heart sign and a “shaka” sign with their hands in front of a large crowd of Palestinians gathered along rows of fences, waiting for food aid at the Tal as Sultan distribution site in Rafah.
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WATCH HEREA source at one of the Gaza distribution sites tells me that Hamas set up a roadblock to prevent Gazans from getting aid.
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) May 27, 2025
They broke through it and were shouting “thank you America” upon reaching the site. pic.twitter.com/5bfRoy6mcO
A combined analysis from NBC News and Get Real Security, a cybersecurity company that specializes in detecting generative AI, proved the video was not made with AI, finding no evidence of AI generation or manipulation in the video.
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SIGN UP NBC News geolocated the video to inside the Tal as Sultan aid distribution site, recently constructed by Israel’s civilian policy unit — the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories — in partnership with the Gazan Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The GHF’s chief spokesperson confirmed with NBC News that the video was originally distributed by its team but could not confirm the identity of the person in the video.
The foundation said in a statement, “Any claim that our documentation is fake or generated by AI is false and irresponsible.”
Satellite imagery from Planet Labs and drone video recorded taken by the Israeli military show the same row of light poles and lines of fencing in the video. Additional collapsed structures and foliage rise behind and between the poles across a dirt lot in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea.
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Shortly after the video was posted to X, users began fighting in the comments about its authenticity. “This video is AI generated,” a user wrote. “Nothing can be believed because it could just as easily have been AI generated.”
Hany Farid, a co-founder of Get Real Security and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told NBC News, “I am not seeing any obvious signs that this video is AI-generated.”
“We see strong continuity in features as the camera pans back and forth, something that generative AI struggles with,” Farid said, noting specific details like the crisp “Ray Ban” logo on the side of the sunglasses worn by the person sporting the baseball cap, as well as the consistency of the shadows made by various objects in the video.
Farid noted that the audio track appears to be consistent with what’s shown in the video itself — down to the sound of the wind and someone saying in English: “Isn’t that crazy? Look at that.”
A reverse image search revealed that the person making gestures to the crowd was wearing a pair of Oakley S.I. gloves, which U.S. contractors have been seen wearing in Gaza as recently as January.
AI-generated videos have emerged around the war in Gaza. In February, President Donald Trump posted a fake video to his Truth Social account that showed Elon Musk throwing money and Trump drinking by a pool with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Even more common are real videos from previous conflicts around the world mislabeled as depicting certain events in Gaza.
“Generative-AI is a double-edged sword,” Farid said. “It can create harmful and fake content that muddies the water of a conflict. It also casts a long shadow and can be used to deny uncomfortable or inconvenient facts.”
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