An image of a man carrying children through rubble during Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip has been assessed as a probable deepfake.

The deepfake image, which appears to show a man helping five children away from the scene of a destroyed building, was shared over 80,000 times on social media and was further amplified on X (formerly Twitter) of the Chinese embassy in France.

Siwei Lyu, director of the Media Forensic Lab at the University of Buffalo, told AFP that the image classifies 'as AI generated by recent detection algorithms,' and highlighted irregularities in the hands and feet.

The finding underscores concerns about the ease with which manipulated images are being developed and used to spread disinformation. The image is the latest in a series of deepfakes used during Israel's 2023 war with Hamas.