"Is Netanyahu Dead?" — How a Disinformation Campaign Flooded the Internet · ELIZA on Steroids

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For about a week now, a question has been circulating on X, Instagram, Telegram, and Bluesky: Is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dead? A viral video with a seemingly six-fingered hand, sudden social media silence, and a deleted tweet set the rumor mill spinning. What’s behind it?

The Starting Point: Silence on X
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The first thing people noticed: Netanyahu’s personal X account showed no new posts for days. Unusual during an active Israel-Iran war — a head of government who normally publishes regular statements suddenly goes silent. Add to that an allegedly deleted tweet from the Prime Minister’s office.

That was enough to trigger a wave of speculation.

The Video with Six Fingers
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On March 12, 2026, the Israeli Government Press Office published a video on YouTube: Netanyahu holding a press conference — his first since the beginning of the current war against Iran. He states that Israel has killed several leading Iranian nuclear scientists, saying:

“We are not waiting. We are initiating, we are attacking, and we are doing so with force.”

In a still frame from this video, his right hand appeared to have six fingers. The internet exploded.

On X, a user posted: “Last time I checked, humans usually don’t have 6 fingers… AI does. Is Netanyahu no more?” An Iranian military-affiliated Instagram account followed up: “The latest video released by the government itself shows that it was AI generated because Netanyahu has 6 fingers.”

The theory: Netanyahu had been killed in an Iranian missile strike, and the Israeli government was spreading AI-generated videos to cover up his death.

What’s Really Behind the “Six Fingers”
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Snopes analyzed the original video and found a simple anatomical explanation: what appears to be a sixth finger is the hypothenar eminence — the natural muscle pad at the base of the little finger, which in an unfavorable still frame can look like an additional finger. In the full video (at 0:34 and 0:54), both hands are clearly visible with five fingers each.

Metro.co.uk adds: the still frame was frozen at the exact moment his hand was partially at the edge of the frame — the image composition did the rest.

The original video remains available on the official YouTube channel of the Israeli Government Press Office.

The Campaign’s Methodology
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The pattern is not new:

Real trigger (social media pause, unusual still frame)
Disinformation grafted on (death by missile strike, AI fabrication)
Viral spread via Iran-affiliated accounts, then organic redistribution by unsettled users
Fact-checkers arrive too late — the false claim has already reached millions by this point

Snopes published an initial debunk on March 12, followed by the Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post. Yet the rumors continue to circulate on March 15.

What We Know and What Remains Unclear
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Confirmed:

Netanyahu is alive. He held a press conference on March 13.
The “6-finger video” shows no AI artifact, but a still frame with an unfavorable hand position.
The Israeli Government Press Office published the original video and denied the rumors.
Snopes, Metro, Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, and others have classified the death report as false.

Unclear:

Why Netanyahu’s personal account was inactive for several days.
Which tweet was deleted and for what reason.
Whether this was a coordinated disinformation campaign with a clear origin or organic rumor spreading.

Assessment
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This case illustrates how little it takes to make disinformation go viral in the context of an active war: a pause, a still frame, an Iranian account with reach. The anger, fear, and uncertainty surrounding the Israel-Iran conflict do the rest.

Particularly interesting: the “6-finger” argument works so well because it has a real technical basis — AI-generated images do frequently show finger anomalies. Knowledge of a genuine indicator is weaponized here against authentic video footage.

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