Claim: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was admitted to a hospital after Iran’s 1 October attacks on Israel.
Fact: There are no credible news reports to suggest that Netanyahu was recently hospitalised, especially following Iran’s attack on Israel in October. The claim circulating on social media is false.
On 4 October, X user @IR_Urdu claimed (archive) that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been admitted to a hospital after he was found unconscious. His health deteriorated as the news of Iran attacking Israel took a toll on him, the post added. When translated from Urdu, the caption reads:
“Breaking: Netanyahu is unconscious, has been admitted to a hospital. It seems that the pressure of Iran’s attack has finally worked… According to reports, Netanyahu is not well at all, and if a little more pressure is applied, he will have complete paralysis.”
The post also included a picture of Netanyahu wiping his forehead and looking tense.
Claims of Netanyahu being hospitalised have emerged time and again since the beginning of the war in Gaza, with several posts including pictures of him in the hospital. Soch Fact Check debunked an AI-generated image which showed the Israeli premier hospitalised earlier in April.
On 1 October, Iran carried out missile attacks on Israel in retaliation against the killing of Iran-backed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Abbas Nilforoshan in Lebanon. Nearly “200 projectiles” were intercepted by Israel and the US.
Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the past year of war has displaced nearly 1.2 million people and destroyed neighbourhoods, killing approximately 2,700 people and injuring another 12,468, according to the latest update from the Lebanese Health Ministry as of October 2024.
Recently, the Middle-Eastern country carried out targeted airstrikes on Iran’s military bases in various provinces on 26 October, terming it a response to the latter’s early October attack.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a keyword search and found no reports about the Israeli Prime Minister being admitted to a hospital after Iran’s attack on Israel.
However, in July 2023, Netanyahu was admitted to a hospital due to dizziness and “suffering dehydration,” after his visit to the “Sea of Galilee, a popular vacation spot in northern Israel during a summer heat wave in the country.”
In April 2024, he underwent surgery for hernia, and at the time remained unconscious while recovering from the procedure.
Both instances of his hospitalisation predate Iran’s missile attack on Israel in April and October 2024. Moreover, the claim in question appears to mimic reports of his health complications from April, which spoke of Netanyahu’s hospitalisation and his unconscious state in the aftermath of the surgery.
We also reverse-searched the image in the claim and found that publications had carried it in news reports as early as 2019; the image, therefore, has no connection with his recent health problems.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that claims of Netanyahu being admitted to a hospital after Iran’s recent attacks on Israel are false.
Virality
The X post (archive) garnered 6,934 times and was liked 472 times.
On Facebook here (archive), here (archive).
Conclusion: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not admitted to a hospital after Iran’s attack on Israel on 1 October.
Background image in cover photo: BBC
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