At the 0:35 timestamp, when Netanyahu lifts his hands, a small extra piece of flesh appears beside his little finger, which many users on social media interpreted as a sixth finger.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “fine,” his office asserted, following social media posts claiming that he had died.
An Anadolu Agency reporter asked the office if they had any statement regarding the mounting claims on social media that “Netanyahu has been assassinated.”
The office replied, “This is fake news; the Prime Minister is fine.”
How the rumors began
On Friday, Netanyahu shared a video on his X (formerly Twitter) account of a press conference regarding the ongoing US-Israel-Iran conflict.
In the video, several social media users claimed to spot six fingers on Netanyahu’s right hand, sparking rumors that the video had been generated by AI.
At the 0:35 mark, when Netanyahu raises his hands, a fleshy protrusion is visible near his little finger—which many social media users claimed was a sixth finger—labeling it a “classic AI finger glitch.”
American conservative political commentator Candace Owens, referring to him by his nickname, asked, “Where is Bibi?”
“Why is his office releasing and deleting fake AI videos of him, and why is there such panic in the White House?” she wrote in an X post.
One user also raised questions regarding the movement of the curtains in the background, while two Israeli flags remained stationary.
They wrote, “Note how the blackout curtain moves in the exact same pattern throughout the entire video—almost as if it were looping. Meanwhile, the two flags do not move at all. A clear indication of AI.”
However, this claim was dismissed by another user, who stated, “Nowadays, many people use fake backgrounds, much like news broadcasters do. That does not mean he is fake.”
X’s AI chatbot, Grok, fact-checked the claims regarding the six fingers and stated, “No, Benjamin Netanyahu does not have six fingers. The circular marks visible in those images—which appear in still frames from his recent speech videos—are optical illusions resulting from shadows, hand angles, or the natural contours of his palm (such as the hypothenar eminence). The full official footage released by Israel’s Government Press Office clearly shows the standard five fingers on each hand.”
Day 16 of the US-Israel-Iran War
Israel and the US launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, an operation that resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the very first day of the conflict. Iran has retaliated by launching attacks against its oil-exporting neighbors.
Iran has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz—a critical conduit for the global oil supply—thereby disrupting trade flows. This narrow waterway is one of the world’s most critical energy routes, typically handling approximately 20 million barrels of oil shipments and about 20 percent of the global liquefied natural gas trade every day.