Following Israel’s assassination of a top Hezbollah commander in July 2024, a doctored photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, falsely claiming he was under Hezbollah surveillance, surfaced around the world. The original photo, showing Netanyahu with his father, was published in February 2009 by US photo distributor Getty Images.
“(The Israeli occupation forces) were stunned when Hezbollah sent a photo of Netanyahu in his office, threatening that he could not hide no matter how hard he tried,” reads the Thai text over the doctored image shared on Facebook on August 7, 2024.
It added the image – which appears to show Netanyahu photographed from a half-open window – was captured by Hezbollah.
The same image was shared with similar false claims in Thai, Burmese, Arabic and English.
The reports emerged online after Hezbollah’s top commander, Fouad Shukr, was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Beirut on July 30, 2024, fueling fears that the war in Gaza could spread.
Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily firefights with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7 sparked the war in Gaza.
However, the original photo was published by Getty Images on February 8, 2009 (archived link).
The photo was attributed to Netanyahu’s Likud party and the caption read: “In this photo, Benjamin Netanyahu (R), leader of the right-wing Likud party, confers with his father Ben Zion Netanyahu at his father’s home on February 8, 2009 in Jerusalem.”
The image in the fake messages had been digitally altered to make it appear as if he was being spied on from outside through a window.
Below is a screenshot of the modified image (left) and the original photo published by Getty Images Photo (right), with the corresponding elements highlighted by AFP:
The photo was also published by the English-language Tablet Magazine in its obituary of Netanyahu’s father on April 30, 2012 (archived link)
AFP has previously debunked misinformation about the Israeli leader, here and here.
