Copyright AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
As the Gaza war nears its second year mark, misinformation about the conflict continues to spread in Africa. A video circulating on Facebook in Ethiopia claims to show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being beaten by a crowd of people. However, this is false: the man in the video is not Netanyahu but Eli Dalal, a lawmaker from the prime minister’s Likud party who fell while trying to make his way through a crowd of protesters on September 20, 2025.
The post shared on Facebook on September 27, 2025 contains a text overlay in Amharic that reads: “Benjamin Netanyahu was beaten by crowds”. The post has been shared more than 350 times since.
The post includes a 25-second video clip that shows a man attempting to push his way through a dense crowd, before falling to the ground and being quickly surrounded as police officers try to shield him.
Israel has faced growing international pressure over its war in Gaza, which has sparked a dire humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory (archived here). Three-quarters of UN members now recognise the State of Palestine.
The war was triggered by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 Israelis, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures (archived here).
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 66,148 Palestinians, according to...
Good afternoon — it’s Friday and Manufacturing Day. In today’s CapCon: Did New York issue a commercial driver’s license to an undocumented immigrant, as Rep. Elise Stefanik repeated this week? We ...