Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video refuting rumors of his death.
On the 15th (local time), Netanyahu posted a video on his Facebook page showing him ordering coffee at a cafe in the suburbs of Jerusalem and receiving the coffee from a clerk and lifting it.
In the roughly 1-minute video, Netanyahu is seen responding in Hebrew to an aide asking about the death rumors, saying, "I love coffee to death. You know that? I love our people to death." He also spread five fingers, seemingly to show the video was not made with artificial intelligence (AI).
This appears to be aimed at denying the prime minister's death rumors that spread on social media (SNS) on the 3rd. The "Netanyahu death rumors" stemmed from a video address by the prime minister released on the 13th. Among internet users who watched the video, a rumor spread that "you can see six fingers on the right hand, so it's an AI-generated video."
However, experts said fingers can momentarily appear abnormal depending on filming and lighting angles, and they did not give much credibility to the death rumors.
Reuters reported that Netanyahu's visit to the cafe could also be confirmed in several posts uploaded by the cafe.