Video shows Oct. 6, 2024, fires in Beirut caused by Israeli airstrikes.

Videos of Beirut buildings in flames went viral as Israel launched airstrikes in southern Lebanon ahead of the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, but not all of the footage is what it seems.

“Beirut last night,” a user captioned an Oct. 6 Instagram video showing several buildings engulfed in flames. But the clip was generated using artificial intelligence.

Screenshot from Instagram

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The video was first shared Sept. 30 on the TikTok account of a creator with a bio that says, “Unusual AI Artist.” The original video includes an AI-generated label.

The TikTok creator told PolitiFact via direct message that all the videos on their account are generated using artificial intelligence. 

Although the video was AI-generated, authentic footage from CNN, Reuters and The New York Times shows Oct. 6 Israeli air strikes causing fires in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, shared a clip on X of the video and later deleted it. A spokesperson from the group told CBS News, “This therefore appears to be one of those unusual instances in which the mistaken use of AI footage didn’t change anything substantively about the point being made: buildings in Beirut are burning under an indiscriminate Israeli bombing campaign.”

We rate the claim that a video shows Oct. 6, 2024, fires in Beirut caused by Israeli airstrikes False.