In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, on Tuesday, November 5, replaced by Israel Katz. The Prime Minister justified his choice by their differences over the ongoing wars, notably in Gaza and Lebanon. To contest this decision, thousands of people demonstrated this Tuesday in Tel Aviv. In this context, Internet users claim that a coup d'état is underway in the country. A fake news based on images taken out of context.
The video takes place at night. We see around fifteen Israeli police officers walking in formation on a highway. Some hold fire extinguishers, others push back demonstrators who challenge them. Several journalists are present, cameras in hand.
This video does not show a coup in Israel.
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This scene has been viewed more than 10 million times in recent hours, on X alone. Those who share these images speak of a “ military coup underway in Israel ». « Thousands of uniformed Israeli soldiers march towards Benjamin Netanyahu's residence and rumors circulate that they intend to expel him », Comments one of them. Another adds: “ it's total chaos in Tel Aviv ».
Verified, this video does not show a coup d'état in progress in Tel Aviv. The police officers visible in the images are not rising up or marching towards the Prime Minister's residence. In reality, they are simply going to the scene of a demonstration organized on the evening of Tuesday, November 5, by residents of Tel Haviv to protest against the dismissal of Yoav Gallant. This rumor of a coup d'état is therefore completely false.
Step by step verification
To verify these images, we first sought to locate them. For this, we relied on the most significant visual elements: namely the highway on which the police officers are walking, the railway track next to the road, and the two large towers visible in the background.
By following highway 20, the central axis of Tel Haviv, on mapping software such as Google Maps, we find this same layout at the level of the Tsamarot Ayalon district.
Once these images were geolocated, we sought to find out who filmed them, and when. This time, we performed several reverse image searches (see here how to do it) to find the first occurrence of this video online. This allowed us to find it on the Twitter account of a journalist from the Israeli daily Haaretz. He states in the caption: “ South Ayalon police officers move in groups to put out fires with fire extinguishers, followed by hundreds of protesters ».
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This description of the facts is shared by the entire Israeli press which has covered this event organized in different locations in Tel Haviv. In total, thousands of people blocked the roads of Ayalon for about four and a half hours. Around forty people were ultimately arrested by the police.
Misinformation to sow trouble
If we do not know precisely who is behind this false information, we know that it was pushed by influential accounts, used to spreading fake news about the situation in the Middle East. Their mission is to sow confusion about what is really happening and to generate clicks by spreading misleading and sensationalist content.
