Black humor
"Hello From Hell:" AI Video of Adraee and Sinwar Sparks Outrage | WATCH
An AI-generated video of outgoing IDF Arabic spokesman Avichai Adraee posing for selfies with eliminated terrorist leaders has gone viral on social media in the Arab world. The clip shows him with Sinwar, Nasrallah, and Mohammad Deif, among others, and has sparked backlash to the dark humor.
An AI-generated video circulating on Arab social media this week offered a darkly satirical send-off to one of Israel’s most recognizable public faces in the region: former IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee.
The clip, posted by Iraqi journalist and commentator Sofian al-Samaraei, shows a fabricated version of Adraee taking a selfie in what appears to be a cemetery, flanked by a lineup of senior figures from the Iran-backed axis who were killed by Israel over the years. Among those depicted are Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, presented visually as a kind of fallen domino chain.
The reactions across the Arab world were sharply divided. Some users treated the video as biting satire, sharing it with gallows humor and reading it as an acknowledgment, however grudging, of Israel’s operational reach and persistence against its enemies. Others reacted with fury, attacking al-Samaraei personally and accusing him of defeatism, betrayal, or psychological surrender. One response summed up that camp’s mood bluntly: “Reality is bitter for you and others like you, with defeated souls.”
The clip landed just weeks after Adraee announced his retirement, underscoring how deeply he penetrated Arab public consciousness. Over years of Arabic-language briefings, social media posts, and carefully calibrated messaging, Adraee became far more than a military spokesman. To supporters in Israel, he was a highly effective tool of deterrence and narrative warfare. To many across the Arab world, he became an unavoidable presence, sometimes mocked, sometimes feared, but always watched.
That an AI parody centered on him could ignite such debate is telling. It reflects not only Adraee’s personal impact, but the uncomfortable reality that Israel’s information campaign succeeded in embedding itself deep inside the region’s media ecosystem. Even in retirement, and even through satire, his shadow clearly still lingers.