Fact Check: Israeli soldier in viral images died by suicide? No, photos show UK MP Wes Streeting

Hyderabad: This July, a series of suicides by Israeli soldiers has been reported. The prolonged psychological toll of the war is pushing troops beyond their limits, raising concerns over the military’s mental health system.

In this context, images of a man in military uniform have been circulating on social media, with the claim that they show an Israeli soldier who died by suicide after shooting himself.

An X user shared an image with the caption, “Another Israeli Soldier Committed Suicide after shooting himself.” (Archive)

Another X user shared one more image of the man in the military uniform making the same claim.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. While there are reports about the suicides, the man in the image is Wes Streeting, the Member of Parliament for Ilford North in the United Kingdom, not an Israeli soldier.

A reverse image search led us to an X account. According to the account, it belongs to Wes Streeting, Labour MP for Ilford North and secretary of state for Health & Social Care. We found the uncropped versions of the viral images on the account, which were shared by Wes Streeting on September 14, 2018. There was also a third photo of him looking through a large rifle.

The post revealed that he was posing for a photo with a woman in military uniform, which was cropped out of the first photo.

The caption read: “Absolutely fantastic couple of days at the Defence Academy to kick start this year’s Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme. Learned a huge amount about the UK’s defence already. Really looking forward to my year with the Royal Navy.”

We also found Wes Streeting on the page on the UK Parliament’s MPs and Lords. His image and his X link on the page were the same as the ones found before. This confirmed that it is the UK’s Ilford North MP, Wes Streeting, in the viral images, and not an Israeli soldier.

Reports on Israeli soldiers dying by suicide

According to a report by The Times of Israel published on July 23, the last two weeks of July witnessed a series of suicides among Israeli soldiers. This has raised serious concerns over the military’s mental health system, with experts warning that the prolonged psychological toll of the war is pushing troops beyond their limits.

The media outlet Anadolu Ajansı reported on July 20 that four Israeli soldiers had died by suicide in the past two weeks. Among them was Corporal Dan Phillipson, a combat soldier in training originally from Norway, who died on July 18, following a suspected suicide attempt on July 15.

The reports also mentioned that, according to Haaretz figures reported in May, a total of 42 Israeli soldiers have died by suicide since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.

Therefore, we conclude that the images show UK MP Wes Streeting. The claim is false.