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Is Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dead? That's what some people have been claiming on social media as the war between Israel, the US and Iran continues.
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The answer to that question is no, as the prime minister took to social media on Sunday to deny the rumours, sharing a video captioned "They say I'm what? Watch>>".
In the clip — which verification experts have confirmed was authentic — a voice tells Netanyahu, "people online are saying you're dead."
He responds, "I'm dying for coffee. I'm crazy about coffee. You know what? I’m mad about my people. How are they behaving? Fantastic. Do you want me to count my fingers?"
Since the US and Israel began their military campaign against Iran on 28 February, Iranian state media and pro-regime accounts have pushed reports about the death of Netanyahu and other senior Israeli political figures, alongside propaganda about their military might.
Conspiracy theorists, self-proclaimed journalists and internet detectives have also jumped on the bandwagon, spreading claims across social media about Netanyahu's death.
Why did Netanyahu post the coffee shop video?
Netanyahu posted the clip after rumours about his death intensified, following an address he made on 12 March, which led social media users to claim that the video was AI-generated, pointing to a frame in which he allegedly had six fingers, rather than five.
In reality, the footage is authentic, but low-quality versions of the broadcast distorted the way the light hit his hand. His five fingers are visible in higher-quality versions of the speech.
In response, Netanyahu held up five fingers to the camera in his proof-of-life café video, in an apparent bid to refute the false allegations.
Netanyahu's coffee shop video was filmed at The Sataf café in the Jerusalem Hills on 15 March. The café shared videos and photos of Netanyahu's visit on their social media, helping to prove that the visit was authentic.
In an Instagram post following his visit, the coffee shop wrote, "We were delighted to welcome the Prime Minister and his staff to Staf today! They'll know which bakery to visit."
But despite this attempt to subdue rumours, the clip appeared to have the reverse effect across social media, with many users doubling down on claims that it was made with artificial intelligence, and others arguing that the footage was old.
Claims the Jerusalem café video is also fake
On 16 March, the Tasnim News Agency — run by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — published an article titled "New Video of Netanyahu Proves Fake", which listed a series of alleged tell-tale signs as evidence that the coffee shop video, intended to debunk the death rumours, was itself AI-generated.
The piece included a screenshot of an X post of sharing results from an AI detector, which listed the video as being digitally created.
The water was further muddied when people turned to Grok — X's AI chatbot — to help verify the authenticity of the footage of Netanyahu in the coffee shop.
Grok shared contradictory claims, in some instances labelling the video as a "deepfake", pointing to "signs like static coffee levels, unnatural lip sync, and casual talk of ops confirm it’s fake."
Euronews's fact-checking team, The Cube, contacted X to ask why these Grok posts had not been removed at the time of publication, but did not receive a response.
Nevertheless, experts have warned that artificial intelligence and deepfake detectors must be treated with caution and that, in this instance, they are not trustworthy.
Verification expert Tal Hagin told us that "a lot of these softwares are searching for discrepancies and based on probability. If you hold your hand in an abnormal position, then the detector can say it's AI if it's not statistically normal for somebody to hold their hand in that way."
"But in real life, a person could hold themselves in such a way, and that's why we can't rely on these platforms", said Hagin.
"We base evidence on reality, not on what people want to believe," Hagin added. "If this video was AI, it would literally would be the most advanced AI model that has ever existed. And you cannot just say on the internet that Netanyahu's team has access to a new secret AI model. You need proof."
Is the video old?
Many social media accounts claimed that the fact that security guards can be seen wearing face masks in shots of Netanyahu's coffee shop visit served as proof that the footage was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In reality, members of the Shin Bet VIP Protection Unit — which is responsible for the security of Israel's highest-ranking government, including the prime minister — have previously worn face masks to conceal their identities.
Social media users also alleged that the receipt in the video was dated 2024.
Tal Hagin told us that these kinds of alleged clues can be easily debunked.
"Most of the types of errors that people saw, such as the receipt they said was from 2024, were simply cause they watched lower quality footage," he said. "If you look at the higher quality footage, it clearly says 2026."
Other leaders also targeted by death rumours
Netanyahu is just one of several top-ranking Israeli officials at the centre of death rumours, as the war in the Middle East continues.
On X, social media users falsely claimed that Israel's Mossad chief David Barnea had been killed, sharing footage of a crime scene.
However, there is no verified evidence to back claims about the death of Barnea, who is set to serve as the director of Mossad until June 2026.
Additionally, the crime scene videos, which were widely disseminated on social media, actually relate to the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in August 2024, which Hamas' armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for.
- Euronews contacted the Israeli Prime Minister's office for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
