Does a viral image show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands with Israeli Defense Forces soldiers in March 2026 amid rumors of his death? No, that's not true: The photo has been online since 2018. As of this writing, no credible media outlet has reported that Netanyahu was wounded or killed in the most recent round of escalation in the region that began on Feb. 28, 2026.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on March 14, 2026. It opened:
🚨Breaking This Is The avidence Now
Benjamin Netanyahu is still Alive he is meeting with IDF officer's at a secret place
news of Netanyahu's death is fake news.
This is what the image attached to the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: @israelititan post on X.com.)
The earliest example of the image's use appeared on Netanyahu's official X account, where it was posted in October 2018 (archived here). The photo predated the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel by five years, and the Feb. 28, 2026, U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran -- which killed its longtime ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- by roughly seven and a half years.
(Image source: @IsraeliPM post on X.com.)
Lead Stories also found a video (archived here) showing the same scene on the official channel of the Israeli prime minister on YouTube. It was also published on Oct. 17, 2018 (click to view larger):
(Image source: @IsraeliPM post on YouTube.)
Rumors that Netanyahu or members of his family had been killed in Iranian retaliatory strikes began circulating online in March 2026.
He held a press conference (archived here) on March 12, 2026.
Then, on March 15, 2026, he posted a video (archived here) on Telegram showing him drinking coffee at a cafe. According to Telegram's automatic translation from Hebrew to English, the caption of that post read:
They say I am what? Watch.
As explained by Reuters (archived here), "dead" may mean "being crazy about" a person or thing in Hebrew slang. When asked about the rumors, Netanyahu said in the video that he's crazy about coffee and his people.
On the same day, the cafe, whose logo could be clearly seen on the green paper cup in the video, posted (archived here) additional photos of Netanyahu on Instagram. The appearance of the store in the video matched available images on Google Maps (archived here) and other photos of the cafe (archived here) on its account on Instagram.
