An image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his son is being shared with the claim that he sent his son to join the army in the ongoing fight against Palestinian militant group, Hamas.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
This post had 450.9K views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)
What is the truth?: The claim is false. While this picture does show Netanyahu sending off his youngest son, Avner Netanyahu, to the army, it is an old picture that dates back to 2014.
How did we find out?: We ran a Google reverse image search and came across news reports from 2014 carrying the same viral image.
We found a news report by the Times of Israel published on 1 December 2014 that carried the the viral photo.
Here is the link to the report.
(Source: The Times of Israel/Screenshot)
The report mentioned that Benjamin Netanyahu's youngest son Avner Netanyahu had joined the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at the Ammunition Hill in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2014.
It included the Israel PM's comments that read, "We are moved just like every mother and father who watch their son go off to the army. Everyone knows this, every home in Israel, and we are no different. I told Avner to take care of the state and to take care of himself.”
Even the Jerusalem Post published their report on 1 December 2014 and carried the same photo as the viral image.
Latest updates on the Israel-Palestine conflict: As of 5:45 PM India Standard Time (IST), Gaza's sole power plant is 'out of service' due to lack of fuel after Israel announced a total blockade on resources on Monday.
Al Jazeera reported the death of three Palestinian medics and nine United Nations staffers in Israeli airstrikes.
Conclusion: Clearly, the viral claim that Netanyahu's son has recently joined the army to fight against Hamas is false. The image dates back to 2014.
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