No, this photo of Netanyahu's home was not taken by a Hezbollah drone

What is the claim?

Multiple social media users are circulating a photograph showing an aerial view of a large property with a swimming pool and garden. The image is accompanied by the claim it depicts the residence of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, photographed by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

One X (formerly Twitter) user posted the photo (archived here) and wrote, "Netanyahu's residence has been filmed by a Hezbollah drone ... On target 🎯" At the time of writing, this photo has amassed more than 164,000 views and more than 6000 likes.

Another X user shared a similar photo (archived here) with the caption, "Netanyahu's house in Caesarea, Israel, was photographed by a Lebanese Hezbollah drone-Israel Hayom." (Translated from Turkish by using Google Translate). 

In addition to social media users, the viral image was circulated on various online news outlets, such as Mashriq TV in Pakistan and Cedar News in Lebanon. The archived versions of these stories are here and here.

Screenshots of similar claims (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, we found the photo was carried by various Israeli news outlets in July 2024 and was credited to Israel's public broadcaster, KAN.

What are the facts?

On conducting a reverse image search, we found that several Israeli news outlets had published similar images in reports from 2024.

A news report by The Times of Israel published on January 30, 2024, headlined, "State approves repairs to pool in Netanyahu's Caesarea home – report," carried the same photo of the property. The image captioned, "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in Caesarea," was credited to Israeli public broadcaster KAN. The Times of Israel also used the photo for another article on Netanyahu's house published on July 19, 2024.

A screenshot from an article published on January 30, 2024, carried a similar image (Source: The Times of Israel/Modified by Logically Facts)

Another report by Radio J, a French radio station that broadcasts information from the Jewish community, carried the same image in an article published on January 30, 2024, crediting the photo to KAN. 

Further, upon relevant Google searches in Hebrew, we found a video uploaded by KAN (archived here) on its YouTube channel on July 1, 2019, with the same visuals at the 0:07 timestamp. The video was originally titled in Hebrew and, when translated using Google, reads, "The villa in Caesarea: The Netanyahu family insists that the state finance the sealing works."

Screenshot of a YouTube video with similar visuals of Netanyahu's property (Source: KAN/Modified by Logically Facts)

According to a news report published by Israel Hayom on August 18, 2024, the Israeli navy identified a possible drone near the Mediterranean coast close to Caesarea, which raised concerns about Hezbollah conducting surveillance to target the residence of Netanyahu. 

However, the Israeli Prime Minister's office later clarified that the radar system mistakenly identified the flock of birds or other objects as a potential threat, citing it as a false alarm as no drones were identified by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at the time.

Violent clashes have occurred between Israel and Hezbollah since the surprise attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023. According to a Reuters report, 622 people in Lebanon have lost their lives since the start of the conflict last year.

The verdict

The claims accompanying the viral image circulating on social media claiming to show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence filmed by a Hezbollah drone are false. The image is a screenshot from a video credited to an Israeli public broadcaster, KAN, and dates back to 2019.