Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to social media on Sunday to put an end to viral conspiracy theories claiming he had been killed in an Iranian strike, posting a video of himself ordering coffee at the Sataf café in the Jerusalem Hills.
The Hebrew-language video was posted to Netanyahu’s social media accounts with the caption, “They’re saying I’m what?”
In the one-minute clip, Netanyahu stands casually at a counter holding a cup of coffee, smiling and chatting with staff.
The Israeli prime minister used wordplay to address the rumors directly.
Ordering coffee at the café, he said “I am dead… for coffee,” using a common Hebrew phrase that roughly translates to loving something to death.
He also said, “I love my nation to death, and how they are conducting themselves.”
Netanyahu also addressed ongoing military operations. He told those present that “we are doing things that hit Iran very hard today as well, and in Lebanon, we continue.”
He closed his remarks with a lighthearted comment about his beverage of choice.
“Thank you for the coffee. It is excellent. I don’t know about the calories. It seems very dangerous to me,” he said, per a translation.
Netanyahu also held up both hands to show that he has 10 fingers, after rumors that his televised Thursday press conference was an AI version of him.
The rumors gained traction two days ago after Netanyahu posted a video of a press briefing on the ongoing US-Israel-Iran conflict.
At the 0:35 mark, when he raised his hands, a shadow and slight angle created an optical illusion of an extra finger next to his little finger, which some users immediately labeled a “classic AI finger glitch.”
Social media erupted with claims that the video was artificially generated and that Netanyahu must therefore be dead.
Fact-checkers debunked the claim of Netanyahu appearing to have six fingers in the footage and attributed the matter to an odd camera angle.
Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office dismissed the entire narrative as “fake news,” stating Netanyahu was “fine.”
Grok, X’s AI chatbot, clarified that the extra finger was a visual illusion and not evidence of manipulated video. It also debunked claims circulating on social media and Iranian media that Netanyahu had died.
Despite Netanyahu’s public appearance, Iran’s military apparatus responded with a direct threat. Iran’s state news agency, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), said in a post on X that the country’s powerful military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had vowed to hunt down Netanyahu.
“IRGC vows to pursue and kill ‘child-killer’ Netanyahu if he is still alive,” IRNA wrote.
The social media buzz comes amid the ongoing US-Israel-Iran war, which began with joint US-Israeli strikes in Iran, resulting in the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
