Tshisekedi and Netanyahu "Lebanon Front" Photo Is AI-Generated

What the image claims

The photo shows two men in military helmets and tactical vests, surrounded by heavily armed soldiers in helmets, protective eyewear, and carrying assault rifles. Captions circulating with it identified the pair as Tshisekedi and Netanyahu, claiming the two leaders were visiting Israeli troops at the front in Lebanon.

The timing wasn't random. Tshisekedi had genuinely traveled to Israel on August 31, 2026, at Isaac Herzog's invitation, meeting with Netanyahu and announcing the DRC would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — a real, significant diplomatic shift. The fabricated image surfaced about a week later, grafting a fictional military moment onto a real and already newsworthy visit.

How it spread

The image first appeared on Facebook on September 7, posted by the account Wakilongo Jackson Jérémie with a caption alleging the two leaders were visiting troops at the Lebanon front — that post was deleted within minutes, after picking up only 3 likes and 2 skeptical comments. The same day, the Esther Medias TV group reposted it through the page Cellule Limete Résidentiel, adding the line "Felix doesn't like peace." By September 8 that version had 287 likes, 35 comments, and 9 shares, with some commenters calling the pair "real bandits."

From there it reached a bigger audience: L'Informateur, a page with 138,000 followers, picked it up on September 8 and logged 413 likes, 76 comments, and 8 shares in just five hours. An X account, Jordan Mukuliza, also shared it, reaching 4,300 views by September 8.

The real photo: Netanyahu alone, in Gaza

A reverse image search using Google Lens traced the picture to its real source: a photo taken in November 2024 in the Gaza Strip, showing Netanyahu visiting Israeli troops at the Netzarim corridor. Tshisekedi does not appear in it — only Netanyahu and soldiers, in the same pose and uniforms seen in the manipulated version.

The original ran in multiple outlets. France 24 published it on November 19, 2026, captioned as Netanyahu visiting the Netzarim corridor in Gaza. L'Opinion ran the same image on December 6, 2024, crediting Israel's Government Press Office. The Jerusalem Post also carried it on November 19, 2024. All three show the same scene — just Netanyahu, no Tshisekedi, no Lebanon.

How UncovAI and two other tools confirmed it

Eleza Fact ran the image through three separate AI-detection tools. OpenAI's own classifier indicated the content was generated using OpenAI tools. UncovAI returned the strongest signal: 100% AI-generated. Sightengine estimated a 99% probability of AI generation, with a 54% likelihood specifically of GPT-diffusion generation.

Three independent tools, three different methodologies, the same conclusion — combined with a reverse image search that located the real, unaltered photo. That's the kind of layered verification that turns a plausible-looking fake into a confidently closed case.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

This case was investigated and reported by Eleza Fact, a non-partisan fact-checking outlet covering the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region, in its original analysis published September 30, 2026, which combined a Google Lens reverse image search with detection results from OpenAI, Sightengine, and UncovAI.