Netanyahu shares AI image of atomic bomb over Tel Aviv warning of Iran threat

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted an AI-generated image showing an atomic bomb falling on Tel Aviv on Sunday, warning that Iran’s nuclear ambitions pose a "real and tangible existential threat" to the country. The post quoted Israeli writer and political commentator Yuval Bloomberg, who wrote that if Iran obtained nuclear weapons, "nothing else will matter anymore."

Netanyahu’s message framed domestic political disputes as a "giant smokescreen" that distracts from what he described as the paramount security challenge posed by Tehran and its regional allies. The post also noted that Israel has "only two more years under U.S. President Donald Trump's administration" to address the Iranian threat.

The publication came two days before the national election scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, where Netanyahu has repeatedly highlighted the Iranian issue as a central campaign theme.

Democrats party chairman Yair Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff, condemned the post, saying, "The prime minister of Israel has posted an image of an atomic bomb falling on Tel Aviv. I ask that he be kept away from social media."

Both the image and the accompanying language have drawn attention to the use of stark visual rhetoric in the final phase of the election campaign.