AI-generated image used to falsely claim Netanyahu hospitalized

"BREAKING NETANYAHU HOSPITALISED He suffered serious health issue in Kiryah and has been shifted to a hospital in Tel Aviv," says a November 17 X post from Sulaiman Ahmed, a creator who has monetized misinformation about Israel's war with Hamas.

The post includes a picture Ahmed describes as an "archive pic" of Netanyahu asleep in a hospital, wearing a ventilator mask.

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Screenshot from X taken November 19, 2024

The same claim has circulated elsewhere on X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, TikTok and YouTube -- including in French, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Malay and Indonesian.

The supposed image of Netanyahu has spread online since at least 2023, amplified in part by Iranian state-funded media.

Israel has been fighting a war with Hamas and its Lebanon-based ally Hezbollah since October 7, 2023, when the former launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. 

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war has reached 43,972, a majority civilians, figures that the United Nations considers reliable.

Netanyahu appeared before the Knesset on November 18, 2024 -- hours after the posts about his "serious" illness began circulating on social media (archived here).

He announced the Israeli military would continue to operate against Hezbollah even if it struck a truce with the Shiite militant group. He also told the parliament that a late October attack on Iran had damaged "a component" of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

"We will be forced to ensure our security in the north (of Israel) and to systematically carry out operations against Hezbollah's attacks ... even after a ceasefire," he told lawmakers.

Some posts claiming Netanyahu was recently admitted to a hospital cite a Hebrew and Arabic-language Telegram post, which attributes the report to "Israeli security media." 

However, AFP could find no credible news reports supporting the rumor.

Since beginning his latest stint as prime minister in December 2022, Netanyahu has visited the hospital several times, including when doctors installed a pacemaker in July 2023 and revealed he had suffered a transient heart block. In April 2024, Netanyahu also underwent full anesthesia during a hernia surgery at a Jerusalem medical center.

Likely AI-generated

The photo being shared of Netanyahu was likely generated by artificial intelligence, experts said.

Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California-Berkeley (archived here), said he analyzed the image using three models trained to identify pictures created using artificial intelligence, all of which classified it as "likely" being AI-generated.

He told AFP on November 19 that he compared the image with actual photographs of Netanyahu and found the left ear was different from that of the Israeli prime minister, indicating it is "not authentic."

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Screenshot from X taken November 19, 2024, with elements highlighted by AFP

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly on October 1, 2015 in New York (AFP / Timothy A. CLARY)

Siwei Lyu, director of the State University of New York at Buffalo's Media Forensic Lab (archived here), also ran the image through a program designed to detect deepfake images and found it is likely not authentic. He, too, noted differences in the shape of the prime minister's ear compared to the one seen in the posts.

AFP has debunked numerous other claims about Netanyahu amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.