Front page claiming Israel is preparing airstrike on Eritrea is fabricated
- Published on September 23, 2025 at 16:10
- 3 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
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The post in Amharic reads: “The prominent Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post today published on its front page, among other things, the news that Israel is planning airstrikes on Eritrea.”
“Israeli officials have said that the Eritrean government is supporting Israel’s enemies and acting against Israel’s interests,” the post continues.
Published on Facebook on September 12, 2025, the post includes a purported front page of The Jerusalem Post newspaper with a headline in English: “Israel reportedly preparing airstrikes on Eritrea.” The date on the purported newspaper is also September 12, 2025.
The post also includes an image appearing to show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulling the ear of a distressed man who looks similar to Eritrean President Esaias Afwerki. The image is repeated on the purported front page, where it is captioned “Reuters”.
The same claim was also shared here and here on Facebook.
Mounting tensions
On September 5, 2025, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed stated that it was only “a matter of time” before Ethiopia regained control of the Red Sea port of Assab (archived here).
Eritrea, formerly a province of Ethiopia, gained independence in 1993, a development that left Ethiopia landlocked after Assab became part of Eritrea.
Abiy’s remarks have sparked widespread debate on Ethiopian social media, where many have launched campaigns calling for Ethiopia to retake Assab.
The speech, combined with already strained relations, has escalated tensions between the two countries, with Eritrea accusing Ethiopia of issuing threats and concentrating forces near their shared border (archived here).
The claim that Israel is preparing airstrikes on Eritrea spread on Facebook in Ethiopia amid this controversy.
However, the purported front page report in The Jerusalem Post was fabricated.
Fabricated front page
Several initial clues point to the front page being fabricated: the newspaper’s masthead is in lowercase letters while the top article’s headline ends in a comma.
Moreover, the masthead does not use The Jerusalem Post’s usual font.
AFP Fact Check found the front page of The Jerusalem Post edition published on September 12, 2025. The original front page looks nothing like the one shared in the Facebook posts in Ethiopia (archived here).
The real version of the front page features The Jerusalem Post’s usual masthead in full caps with a bold red line under the first word and an Israeli flag as a backdrop.
In contrast, the fabricated version uses lowercase letters and lacks all of these distinguishing elements.
The original front page does not include any stories about plans to strike Eritrea, nor does it mention Eritrea at all.
Its top stories were about an Israeli strike in Doha and the release of a Russian-Israeli researcher who had been held hostage in Iraq.
No such story
A search on The Jerusalem Post’s website did not turn up any stories about any Israeli plans to strike Eritrea.
The Jerusalem Post confirmed to AFP Fact Check that the outlet has not published the story on any of its platforms.
“This is a false claim,” said Tal Spungin, the newspaper’s managing editor. “The Jerusalem Post never reported on a potential strike in Eritrea.”
There have been no credible reports in any other media outlets about any supposed Israeli plan to attack Eritrea.
Furthermore, the image of the Israeli prime minister does not show up on any credible news sites, nor was it found in Reuters’ archive.
The Hive Moderation AI detection tool estimated a likelihood of more than 75 percent that the image was AI-generated.
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