How AI images are driving hero-worship of killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar - analysis

After Hamas Yahya Sinwar's assassination, many AI-generated images and videos have been released regarding his final moments, providing the army of pro-Sinwar commentators online with a way to produce quick and slick images of their new hero.

One short video shows the now-dead Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar fighting in Gaza’s rubble with an AK-47, holding off Israeli tanks and infantry all by himself.

Another image depicts him sitting on a chair, an American-made M-16 resting beside him. Another photo depicts Sinwar as a comic-book superhero, leaping into battle with a rifle in one hand, reminiscent of a cover of Marvel’s X-Force comic book from the early 1990s.

Fans of Sinwar

These hagiographic scenes are the product of the AI technological revolution, which has provided the army of online pro-Sinwar commentators with a new way to produce quick and slick images of their new hero.

It’s worth noting that the adoration for Sinwar is relatively new in these circles. Many of those who have come to adore Sinwar have only done so since the October 7 massacre. Some of them have come to adore him only since he was killed last week. This is a unique phenomenon of people adopting a new hero.

However, the hero they want to adopt is not the one that actually exists in real images from Sinwar’s life.

There are several photos and videos of the former Hamas leader that are well known, such as one of him posing with a child while holding a gun or another of him sitting in a chair amid ruins several years ago. That image is oddly consistent with how Sinwar actually met his end, sitting in a chair, wielding a stick against a drone.

Another real photo shows Sinwar awkwardly drawing a gun from his pants. None of the real images and videos of Sinwar are actually the kind one could use to romanticize him because he is a figure who is neither heroic nor romantic.

Sinwar's history

From a relatively young age, he was engaged in violence and murder. He came to leadership in Hamas through the murder of Palestinians he accused of collaboration. In Israeli prison, he spoke about how he wanted to kill more people. Released back into Gaza, he went straight back to his extremism.

Sinwar didn’t lead a particularly fascinating life. For backers of the Palestinian “cause,” he is one of the people chiefly responsible for destroying and isolating Gaza and ruining any idea of the two-state solution.

His whole life was against peace and against institution-building for Palestinians. For the pro-Palestinian crowd, this might have once been awkward since they pretended to be for two states.

Since October 7, the pro-Palestinian crowd has shifted and become more extreme. It has also been joined by grifters abroad from the far Left and far Right who have adopted this cause solely out of hatred of Jews and support for the October 7 massacre.

However, they want their new hero, Sinwar, to be packaged in an image that can be adored.

AI-generated content

AI-generated videos and images have come to help these people. The evidence that these images are AI-generated comes from how sleek they look on the one hand, but also their stark inconsistencies

For instance, some of the images show Sinwar with an M-4 or M-16 style rifle, the types of rifles that are rare in Gaza, even though they are more common in the West Bank, where they are trafficked from abroad.

One image shows Sinwar holding what appears to be an M-4-style rifle with some sort of military-style backpack, his arms bulging from having apparently just left the gym after a day working his biceps. The real Sinwar was skinny and didn’t have large biceps; most of his time was spent underground, not at the gym. The AI-generated images bulk up Sinwar, adding probably 50 lbs to his frame.

Then there is the comic book Sinwar, which shows him jumping through flames, his hands on his rifle, which in this case may be some kind of modified AK with a front grip. Here Sinwar is again more healthy-looking than he was, wearing a tactical vest with extra ammo as he charges into battle.

One image depicts Sinwar sitting in the chair in the ruined house where he met his demise. However, in this image, Sinwar is seated upright, gripping a seemingly generic-looking rifle from its barrel.

The rifle itself seems to have a lower assembly that comes from some kind of standard idea of what a rifle looks like but actually depicts maybe a French MAS-49 from the Vietnam era. Another image shows Sinwar depicted in what appears to be either a bronze or copper sculpture sitting on a couch holding an M-16-style rifle. He also seems to have a bandolier of bullets wrapped around his chest for a second weapon, which is apparently not shown. This one is incredibly unlikely. Yet, 600,000 people have viewed it.

He also seems to have a bandolier of bullets wrapped around his chest, for a second weapon which is apparently not shown. This one is incredibly improbable. Yet, 600,000 people have viewed it.

The AI-generated images become even more improbable as one wades through them. One image depicts Sinwar sitting in a house with his stick, his back to the wall, while an Apache helicopter hovers dubiously inside the house.

An M1Abrams American tank is also shown bursting through another room. Clearly, whoever made this must have asked the AI to make an image with a random tank and helicopter in it “in a house.” 

This didn’t stop 500,000 people from viewing the image. A different image shows Sinwar wandering in a field of flowers near the Dome of the Rock, carrying a pistol and wearing a military-style vest in a crisp white shirt. Some of the images don’t even seem to be Sinwar.

One of them depicts him as if he is in one of those advertisements selling expensive watches, with some black-and-white character that is then said to be Sinwar.

Another image seems to be a kind of drawing but is likely also produced by AI, showing Sinwar in the house waiting for death while an IDF tank and a pack of hyenas assault him. It’s unclear who would have entered the prompt “add hyenas.”

Some of the images created to memorialize and lionize Sinwar are also signed as if they may have been made by some kind of illustrator. It’s not clear in these cases if the images were in part produced with the assistance of AI or if someone drew them entirely.

In general, the way the images often copy historic covers or types of comic book drawings and styles, such as the neo-noir Sin City brand, suggests that they are not entirely original content.