Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday posted a video with US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, in what is being viewed as another “proof of life” amid a viral hoax that Netanyahu was killed in an Iranian airstrike.
Earlier, Netanyahu had released two similar videos. The first one came on Sunday, when he was seen buying coffee at a Jerusalem coffee shop. In the following video that came out on Monday, he was seen in Jerusalem interacting with residents.
However, like the previous two videos, users on social media claimed that the video with Huckabee was AI-generated. While earlier, Netanyahu’s fingers and the ring on his finger were at the center of the AI claims, this time it was his height.
Official records indicate that Mike Huckabee is 5-foot-10, while Netanyahu is around 5-foot-9. But social media users claimed that Netanyahu appeared to be taller than Huckabee in the video, which was allegedly caused by a distortion usually seen in visuals generated using Artificial Intelligence.
“This version of Netanyahu is several inches taller. How can an adult’s height increase in 2 weeks?,” one user wrote in response to Huckabee’s X post.
“Huckabee is 5.11 in height Netanyahu is 5.9 1/2 but here Netanyahu looks same height or even taller,” wrote another.
“Why does Netanyahu look like he’s 10 cm taller when they’re supposed to be the same height?” added another.
Earlier Proof Video Faced Similar Allegations
The videos, supposedly of proof of life, that Netanyahu released earlier, also faced similar allegations of being AI-generated. In the coffee shop video released Sunday, users noticed that Netanyahu purportedly has six fingers. Even Grok claimed that the video was. But in response, the shop where the PM was getting coffee in the video shared photos of Netanyahu’s visit.
Similarly, with the other video in Jerusalem, users claimed that the 76-year-old’s ring was disappearing, suggesting that it could be AI.
However, as of now, there is no clear proof that the videos are AI-generated.
Netanyahu Death Rumors Have Been Rampant
Rumors about Benjamin Netanyahu’s death have gone viral on social media ever since Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike.
Initially, social media users claimed that Netanyahu had fled to Germany, fearing a possible Iranian retaliation. But those claims were debunked shortly as the Israeli PMO office shared photos of Netanyahu in high-level meetings in Tel Aviv.
After that, claims surfaced that Netanyahu’s brother, Iddo, was killed in an Iranian air strike while Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, was injured. But those claims also turned out to hoaxes with no confirmation.
