Where is Netanyahu? Five triggers for wild speculation on social media

“No one cares if Netanyahu is dead or alive. All Zionists are like Netanyahu,” posted Seyed Mohammad Marandi, the Tehran University professor, arguably the most-interviewed Iranian on Israel’s war on Iran, on X on Saturday. The post followed several days of intense speculation about the whereabouts of the Israeli prime minister, who was reportedly not seen in public since 9 March 2026.

Speculations continued even after Grok seemingly set doubts at rest. “The images (showing an injured man resembling Netanyahu being carried/loaded into an ambulance) and the claim of "exclusive footage" of the Israeli PM injured are not real. Fact-checks from Snopes (12 March) and Hindustan Times (today) confirm these are fabricated/AI-generated or misleading. Netanyahu spoke publicly at a live news conference on 12 March with no injuries reported by any credible outlet. This matches ongoing unverified rumours pushed by Iranian state media since early March, debunked amid the US-Israel-Iran conflict (now day 15). No mainstream verification exists,” it stated.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s public appearances have been rare since Israel and the US jointly attacked Iran on 28 February. It was reported initially that his official plane had been parked for safety in Berlin or in Cyprus. This was followed by reports that he was spending much of his time flying in his plane. However, for the past one week he has not figured much in media reports in or out of Israel, except an AI generated speech in which he allegedly claimed that Israel was set to emerge as a super-power in the world.

The images of a house wrecked in Tel Aviv, of a body being put in an ambulance, of a look-alike lying seemingly lifeless in the midst of rubbles began circulating with claims that Israel’s prime minister had been killed in a missile attack. There was no official statement or confirmation and the mainstream media ignored the wild speculation as another false propaganda in the fog of war. That has not prevented from credible sources and ‘experts’ from speculating.

If he is not severely injured or in a coma, or if not killed they wondered why he had gone silent in the middle of an existential war. It would have been simple enough for him to be seen at a meeting, in a plane or in his office or bunker, or even at home. So, where is he, they asked. There have been several triggers for such speculation.

They pointed to a social media post from the office of the Israeli prime minister, asking citizens to ignore rumours about the prime minister. The post was, however, deleted and the question was why. They also pointed to a security assessment meeting in Tel Aviv, which was presided over by defence minister Katz and skipped by the prime minister. Unusual, they said. The third trigger was the prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu, who too had gone completely silent since 9 March 2026. Grok is said to have confirmed that he was a compulsive social media user, often posting 50 or 60 posts a day. It was unusual for such a person to go off the social media, they argued.

The latest speculation is that the announcement is going to be made in a day or two; that it will be claimed that medical complications led to the death. One hopes the speculations turn out to be untrue because nobody deserves to be killed in a senseless war, not soldiers, not Iranian civilians and not Netanyahu. Truth, as they say, is the first casualty in war.