Does an image on social media authentically show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a ventilator in a hospital? No, that's not true: The picture shows a person with a differently shaped ear. Lead Stories analysis found other inconsistencies that strongly suggested digital manipulation. The image has been on social media since at least 2023.
The picture reappeared in a post (archived here) on Threads on November 17, 2024. It said:
BREAKING: PM NETANYAHU HOSPITALISED
He suffered serious health issue in Kiryah and has been shifted to a hospital in Tel Aviv.
Archive Pic.
This is what the post looked like on Threads at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Thu Nov 21 17:02:05 2024 UTC)
An analysis of the image using the tools at TrueMedia.org found "substantial evidence of manipulation". Read the full report here (archived here.) A TrueMedia human analyst reviewed the image and verified the findings of the automatic tools.
(Source: Truemedia.org screenshot taken on Fri Nov 22 02:42:55 2024 UTC)
The image reviewed in this fact check has been circulating on social media since at least November 2023 when BBC Verify journalist Shayan Sardarizade was one of the first to spot it (archived here).
The origin of the picture is obscure. A Google reverse image search (archived here) did not show any credible journalistic organizations publishing it in the news section. It didn't appear on Netanyahu's official account on X (archived here), manually reviewed by Lead Stories, either.
While waiting for True Media's full report, Lead Stories analyzed the photo, noting the following:
The image showed the visible ear to be inconsistent with the appearance of the real Netanyahu's left ear seen in photos published by the U.S. Department of Defense in December 2023 (archived here) and Sen. Mitch McConnell on his U.S. Senate page in July 2024 (archived here). In those pictures, we can observe characteristic, rather sharp curves surrounding the upper and lower parts of the cavity connected to the ear canal.
The images below illustrate the difference. Screenshots were slightly rotated to show the ear from roughly the same angle for easier comparison. The image on the left is from the Threads post; the other two are from the photos of Netanyahu:
(Sources: Threads screenshot taken on Thu Nov 21 17:02:05 2024 UTC; Defense.gov screenshot taken on Thu Nov 21 19:48:27 2024 UTC; Senate.gov screenshot taken on Thu 19:53:36 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
Between July 2024 and November 2024, Netanyahu's ear didn't change its shape. As seen in the November 19, 2024, post (archived here) on his official account on X, it looks exactly the same as in the pictures published by the Pentagon and McConnell's office:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Nov 21 20:31:13 2024 UTC)
At the same time, the image in the post on X showed a series of discrepancies pointing toward digital manipulations.
On the left, the person's shoulder is covered with a white sheet that merges into the pillow. In the center of the image, just behind what looks like an oxygen tube, is a strange line, a smaller tube or a wire, that is not connected to anything. It does not correspond with any objects in the picture that could have cast a shadow of this shape. Furthermore, the appearance of elastic cords holding the mask raises questions: Each end is attached to the fabric differently, and the upper one unnaturally blends into the mask.
(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Thu Nov 21 17:02:05 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
In the two years before the time of writing, Netanyahu was hospitalized twice. In July 2023, he underwent surgery to install a pacemaker (archived here). On March 31, 2024, the Israeli prime minister was hospitalized for a hernia removal (archived here). But a search across November 2024 articles indexed by Google News for the keywords seen here (archived here) didn't produce any media reports confirming a purported recent hospitalization.
The same claim was also previously reviewed by other fact-checking organizations, including PolitiFact, AFP and Logically Facts.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of the claims mentioning Benjamin Netanyahu can be found here.
