ALBAWABA—An iconic picture of a Middle East Airlines plane landing in Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport was posted on social media and went viral in a few seconds.
Many celebrities and stars reposted the photo including Lebanese singer Elissa and Egyptian TV presenter Amr Adib and called the pilot a hero for continuing the flight despite the Israeli airstrikes on Beirut.
Lebanese singer Elissa shared the viral photo and wrote the caption: "MEA AIRLINES
ICONIC." Meanwhile, Amr Adib said: "This is the Lebanon that I know, Elissa. The world is on fire, and the Lebanese plane lands safely. God willing, I will come back, I will come back to be rebuilt. I will come back to Lebanon."
Lebanese local media reported on Sunday evening that Israeli jets carried out strikes targeting branches of the "Hezbollah-linked" Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial association where one of the branches is located near the Rafic Hariri International Airport, which is the only commercial airport.
Earlier, the Israeli army warned it would attack the quasi-bank after it was accused of financing the Hezbollah.
Iconic photo of MEA Airlines plane is AI:
However, despite reports from Lebanon that plane movement continued normally despite strikes, after research, it turned out that this specific iconic photo is unreal.
X (formerly Twitter) fact-check and Al Arabiya.net highlighted that the photo was generated using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program.
Al Arabiya.net also investigated its authenticity on a website specializing in identifying images modified using artificial intelligence, and it turned out that it was indeed modified.
