Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in a video on X on Sunday, March 15, to directly address rumours that he’d been killed. A cup in hand at a cafe, he says in between sips, “They say I’m what?”.
Speaking in Hebrew, he goes on to flash his hands to show he has five fingers, and not six as was theorised by social media users who said his earlier video was “AI-generated”.
The video came after at least two days of X and TikTok posts that said he had been “unalived” or “deleted” — words that people prefer online to “death” as the social-media algorithm allegedly deprioritises that word.
What’s in Netanyahu’s latest video?
In the video, Netanyahu is seen addressing someone behind the camera, saying: “What did you ask me?”
The person, not seen, says: “Prime Minister, they say on the internet that you are dead.”
He replies (translated from Hebrew): “I’m dying for coffee… Do you want to count the number of fingers?”
The person then asks: “Prime Minister, what is the message to the people…?”
Netanyahu says: “The government, the IDF, Mossad… We are doing things that I cannot share at this moment, but we are doing it very strongly; things in Iran, even on this day, also in Lebanon. We are continuing.” He then tells people to listen to precautionary and safety orders: “Always be in a protected area.”
He then turns to the barista: “Thank you for the coffee. It was excellent. I don’t know about the calories, though. It seems very dangerous to me.”
How rumour flew
Conservative podcaster Candace Owens was among major online influencers who wondered where Netanyahu was amid unverified claims of him dying in an Iranian strike.
As per Turkey’s state-run news agency, the Israel PMO later said: “These are fake news; the Prime Minister is fine.”
But the speculation continued as he did not appear in public. After the clarification from Netanyahu’s office began to circulate online, Owens wrote: “…but they failed to present Bibi’s recent location, a video, or anything else. Iran also claimed their leader was alive and while he was dead. So we prefer proof.”
And now comes this video that talks of details of those theories, thus establishing that it’s new and not recorded.
