{"id":164540,"date":"2026-03-16T00:06:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T00:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164540\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T00:06:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T00:06:25","slug":"israeli-pm-benjamin-netanyahu-pokes-fun-at-online-assassination-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164540\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu pokes fun at online assassination rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin <\/a>made it clear Sunday that he is very much alive.<\/p>\n

The Israeli leader poked fun at bogus online claims he had been assassinated by Iran, posting a video of himself buying a drink at a coffee shop, joking that it was dangerous because of the calorie count.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say I\u2019m what?\u201d Netanyahu posted on X<\/a>, per a translation.<\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted an online video Sunday in the wake of rumors about his assassination. X\/@netanyahu<\/p>\n

\u201cI think coffee is to die for, I think my nation is to die for,\u201d he said in the video as he bought a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n

Rumors about Netanyahu being assassinated began circulating online late last week after online loons claimed they spotted him with six fingers during a speech he gave, and surmised it was an artificially generated video of him.<\/p>\n

During the video\u00a0post\u00a0on Sunday, it was clear that the Israeli prime minister had five fingers on both of his hands. He also made small talk in the coffee shop about the war in Iran.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing things that I cannot share at this moment, but we are doing things,\u201d he said, per a Google translation of his conversation in Hebrew. \u201cWe are hitting Iran very hard, even on this day, and in Lebanon, we are continuing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu flashed all of his fingers to the camera after a wild rumor claimed a recent video of him was AI-generated because he supposedly had six fingers on one hand. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for the coffee. It is excellent. I don\u2019t know about the calories. It seems very dangerous to me,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

The Iranians have long been accused of plotting to assassinate Netanyahu and President Trump.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s coverage of the United States\u2019 airstrikes on Iran:<\/p>\n

Amid internet conspiracy theories dubiously claiming that Netanyahu was assassinated, the\u00a0Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u00a0vowed to kill him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIRGC vows to pursue and kill \u2018child-killer\u2019 Netanyahu if he is still alive,\u201d a headline in\u00a0Iranian state media<\/a>\u00a0read Sunday.<\/p>\n

An Israeli artillery unit firing towards southern Lebanon from Israel on March 15, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

A building destroyed by an Israeli strike in Borj Qalaouiya, Lebanon seen on March 15, 2026. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Under Netanyahu\u2019s watch, Israel joined the US in launching a war against Iran on Feb. 28. Israel also began strikes in Lebanon to attack Hezbollah,<\/a> a US-designated terrorist organization aligned with Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iran has blasted off an onslaught of rockets and drones against Israel, some of which have penetrated the Jewish state\u2019s sophisticated missile defense systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Force has wiped out top Iranian officials, with the IDK\u00a0claiming Saturday<\/a>\u00a0to have killed two senior intelligence officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iranians clearing debris from the site of an airstrike in Tehran on March 15, 2026. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Reports have indicated that early on in the war, Israel carried out the strikes that killed\u00a0the late\u00a0Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, thanks to US intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI got him before he got me. They tried twice \u2026 I got him first,\u201d Trump boasted to ABC News earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The late Grand Ayatollah\u2019s son,\u00a0Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a>, was quickly named the next supreme leader of Iran, but there are open questions about his condition and whether or not he is still alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unclear that he really has control of the country, if he\u2019s even alive at this point,\u201d US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Post contacted the Israeli embassy to the US for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin made it clear Sunday that he is very much alive. The Israeli leader…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8307,3895,14670,60,9,11,10,62206,1076],"class_list":["post-164540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-assassinations","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-operation-epic-fury","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}