The picture spread after Israel launched a surprise attack on a range of targets in Iran, resulting in retaliation.

After Iranian state media said its forces had shot down two Israeli fighter jets, a report dismissed as "fake news" by an Israeli official, an image surfaced in posts falsely claiming it shows a downed F-35.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Iran, a number of Iranian media outlets with close links to the government have reported that Iran had shot down four Israeli F-35 fighter jets.