Tipsheet

Is Benjamin Netanyahu Dead?

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  March 16, 2026 4:00 PM

No, Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t dead, but that hasn’t stopped rumors from spreading online, fueled by alleged AI videos. Some clips claim to show him with six fingers during a speech last week, while others point to a ring mysteriously shifting on his hand.

Benjamin Netanyahu himself decided to put the rumors to rest, appearing at a local coffee shop in Israel on Monday and making light of the situation.

“They say I’m what?” Netanyahu said in a video posted to X, according to a translation by the New York Post. “I think coffee is to die for, I think my nation is to die for."

“We are doing things that I cannot share at this moment, but we are doing things,” he continued. “We are hitting Iran very hard, even on this day, and in Lebanon, we are continuing.”

“Thank you for the coffee. It is excellent. I don’t know about the calories. It seems very dangerous to me,” he added.

The prime minister later posted another "proof of life" video at a second location.

The "proof of life" videos fueled internet jokes, with AI edits swapping Netanyahu for the new Iranian Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, rumored to be dead, in a coma, or gravely injured.

This comes as the Iranian regime, already severely decapitated and having had its military capabilities obliterated, has vowed to assassinate Prime Minister Netanyahu.