Claim: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been hospitalised in Tel Aviv after suffering from serious health issues.
Fact: Netanyahu has not been ill nor hospitalised.
On 18 November 2024, a user on X posted an image (archive) of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lying unconscious in the hospital with an oxygen mask on. The post is captioned:
“BREAKING NETANYAHU HOSPITALISED
He suffered serious health issue in Kiryah and has been shifted to a hospital in Tel Aviv.
Archive Pic”.
Fact or Fiction?
A keyword search found that no mainstream news outlet had reported on the claim. There have also been no press releases or social media posts by the Israeli government announcing that Netanyahu is suffering from serious health issues or that he was hospitalised.
Soch Fact Check examined the viral image of Netanyahu sick in the hospital, which seemed to be AI-generated from its blurred and airbrushed quality.
A reverse-image search of the viral image found that it had been fact-checked and proven to be AI-generated in March and April 2024 by LogicallyFacts and The Quint. This claim was also previously investigated in April 2024 by Soch Fact Check and found that it is AI-generated.
Netanyahu’s health has been the topic of viral misinformation ever since the war on Gaza began in October 2023. In March 2024, when the image first went viral, Netanyahu was hospitalised at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem for hernia surgery, as reported by The Times of Israel. However, soon after misinformation spread that his condition was deteriorating, despite reports that the surgery was successful. Additionally, the Prime Minister had posted on X at the time, confirming he was discharged from the Hadassah Hospital writing, “I am now being discharged from Hadassah-Ein Kerem Hospital, which had become my office in the past day. We continued to work even from here”, further disproving claims that his condition had deteriorated.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim on X here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not hospitalised, nor has his health seriously deteriorated. The image of him in the hospital is AI-generated.
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