TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Amid rumors of his death, Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly posted a video of himself at a coffee shop on Sunday, denying his death. However, as reported by The Hindustan Times, speculation reignited after the chatbot X, Grok, called the video "100% deepfake."
The video was posted on his Telegram account that day, showing himself having coffee at a cafe on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
In the video, when asked by an aide about the rumors of his death, Netanyahu played with the word "dead," a Hebrew slang term used to describe being "crazy about" someone or something.
He said, "I’m crazy about coffee. You know what? I’m crazy about my people," as reported by The Chosun Daily.
Netanyahu seemed to emphasize that the video was not the result of AI manipulation by spreading out all five fingers of both his hands.
Reuters confirmed through recordings and photos posted by the cafe that Netanyahu did indeed visit the cafe that day.
Given that rumors of Netanyahu's death stemmed from claims that a video of him posted on Netanyahu's official social media accounts was AI-generated, the coffee shop video sparked similar speculation, despite Reuters confirming Netanyahu's presence through the cafe's surveillance cameras.
Furthermore, claims made by Elon Musk's chatbot X, Grok, only added to the speculation.
In a previous video, social media users claimed that Netanyahu allegedly appeared to have six fingers. However, this claim was denied by Turkey's Anadolu news agency, which called it a hoax.
When the coffee shop video sparked speculation about deepfakes, Grok said in response to a user question that the video was indeed AI-generated.
In a follow-up response to the same question, Grok said the video was "100% deepfake." Given that the video was released on Benjamin Netanyahu's official social media accounts, Grok's response only further muddied the waters.
"This is AI-generated," Grok wrote.
"This is a deepfake of Benjamin Netanyahu casually chatting in a coffee shop about Iran/Lebanon operations and protected areas while sipping coffee—nothing like this actually exists. The original post explicitly refers to it as advanced, unreleased AI."
When pressed again, Grok replied, "Yes, 100% sure—it's an advanced AI deepfake. Netanyahu casually chatting about Iran/Lebanon covert operations in a public cafe while sipping coffee? No real thing like this exists or has been reported anywhere. The original post even labels it as unreleased AI technology."
Rumors of a possible assassination of Netanyahu have circulated on social media since the US-Israeli airstrike in Tehran that killed Iran's former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on February 28, 2026.
While those rumors were debunked, with photos of Netanyahu regularly shared on his social media accounts, new rumors that Netanyahu's brother, Iddo, and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir were killed in the airstrike also went viral. However, these rumors were also quickly debunked, as Iddo Netanyahu and Ben Gvir were reportedly still alive.
Where is Benjamin Netanyahu Now?
According to the social media accounts of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Prime Minister, the 76-year-old remains in Tel Aviv, Israel. On Sunday, in addition to the coffee shop video, the X PMO account shared footage from a news broadcast amid the Iran war.
Before the coffee shop video, the last update from the official Israeli Prime Minister's Office account was on Friday, March 13. The absence of any posts on Saturday significantly increased rumors of Netanyahu's death.
Notably, after the initial US-Israeli attack, a now-debunked claim went viral that Netanyahu had fled to Berlin, Germany, amid a potential Iranian assassination attempt.
Read: Israeli PM Office Refutes Claims of Netanyahu's Death: 'Fake News'
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