Is a photograph that appears to show Israeli military personnel posing with the Israeli and ISIS flags authentic? No, that's not true: The image has been doctored. The original photograph does not include the black-and-white flag associated with the Islamic State, or ISIS.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on March 7, 2024. The post included the edited photograph and claimed:
ISRAEL IS ISIS.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of the writing of this fact check:
The original photograph can be seen here (archived here) on the official account of the Israel Defense Forces, where it was posted on June 5, 2023, to mark African Lion, an annual military exercise in Morocco:
משלחת של 12 לוחמים ומפקדים מיחידת סיירת גולני יצאה אתמול לתרגיל "African Lion 2023" בהובלת זרוע היבשה שמתקיים במרוקו.
-- צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) June 5, 2023
בתרגיל משתתפות כ-18 מדינות וכ-8,000 חיילים מצבא ארה"ב, מרוקו וגאנה >> pic.twitter.com/4SDKbAcAJl
The caption for the original photograph, as translated from Hebrew to English by Google Translate, read:
A delegation of 12 fighters and commanders from the Golani patrol unit left yesterday for the "African Lion 2023" exercise led by the land arm that is taking place in Morocco.
About 18 countries and about 8,000 soldiers from the US army, Morocco and Ghana are participating in the exercise.
Last year was the first year Israel sent troops to participate in the drill, according to The Times of Israel, which also published the original photograph of the soldiers.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims involving Israel can be read here.
