April 12, 2026 | 01:44 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A video claiming that 4,000 U.S. soldiers were killed after landing at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel circulated on Instagram [archive], Facebook, X, and YouTube on April 1, 2026.
The post features footage of missile launches, burning buildings, and explosions shrouded in thick smoke. The narration states that the soldiers were killed in an Iranian attack.
Tempo investigated two claims: the authenticity of the video showing the Iranian attack on Ben Gurion Airport and the report of the deaths of 4,000 U.S. soldiers.
FACT CHECK
Tempo verified the content through reverse image searches, visual analysis, AI-powered detection tools, and a review of credible news sources. In fact, several of these video clips are unrelated to the Iranian attack at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel.
Video Contains Footage of Various Events Outside Israel
This clip of a TV presenter was found circulating on YouTube. Manual analysis revealed that the lip-syncing was out of sync with the speech, a hallmark of AI-generated content.
Tempo traced the original video using reverse image search. The results showed that the original video clip came from the Liputan6 news program on SCTV, not TVOne as indicated by the logo. The original video was uploaded to the Liputan6 YouTube channel on December 21, 2025, during a segment where the presenter discussed the impact of flash floods in Aceh.
An analysis using the Hive Moderation AI detection tool confirmed a similarity score of 97.5 percent.
The Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector also indicated that 99 percent of the presenter’s audio was synthetic.
The clip of thick plumes of smoke shown afterward did not take place in Israel either. The Associated Press (AP) reported that the incident occurred at Sanaa Airport in Yemen, not Turkey, on May 6, 2025. The video, sourced from media owned by the Houthi group, Ansar Allah, captured an Israeli military attack on a civilian aircraft.
The original video shows civilian aircraft at Sanaa Airport that were attacked by the Israeli military on May 6, 2025. The conflict between the two sides erupted after the Houthis launched an attack in support of Hamas’s struggle in Gaza.
Another clip also did not take place at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, but rather a fire at the Port of Salalah, Oman, on March 11, 2026. According to Reuters, the explosion at the oil tank was triggered by a drone attack allegedly carried out by the Iranian military during the conflict against Israel and the U.S. To date, Iran has stated that it is still investigating the allegations.
Number of U.S. Troops Killed
The websites Military.com and Fox Live Now report that 365 U.S. troops were wounded and 13 killed between the attack on Iran on February 28 and April 3, 2026. Meanwhile, the death toll in Iran has reached more than 1,900, and 1,400 people have been killed in Israel.
Iran has repeatedly claimed to have attacked Ben Gurion Airport. The Iranian news agency WANA reported that the latest attack occurred during the first week of April. Al Jazeera noted that the Houthi group also announced a similar attack on the Israeli international airport.
However, the series of attacks has not significantly impacted operations at Ben Gurion Airport. The Times of Israel reported on April 5, 2026, that airport staff were only startled by the discovery of a package suspected of containing hazardous materials that emitted smoke.
The Ynetnews website explained that authorities have strictly restricted access to Ben Gurion Airport over the past two weeks. The Ministry of Transportation began easing flight restrictions starting Sunday night, April 6, allowing airlines to sell up to 100 seats, including a 30 percent quota for humanitarian missions.
CONCLUSION
Tempo’s verification concludes that the narrative in the video claiming an Iranian ballistic missile struck Ben Gurion Airport, killing 4,000 U.S. soldiers, is false.
TEMPO FACT-CHECK TEAM
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