Netanyahu Refutes Death Rumor With Coffee Run

JERUSALEM, March 15 (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video of himself getting a cup of coffee and chatting with his aide on Sunday, after rumors that he was dead or injured were aired by Iranian state media and spread online in Iran.

In the video, taken at a cafe in Jerusalem’s outskirts and posted on Netanyahu’s Telegram account, his aide asks him about the rumors.

Netanyahu responds with a pun on the word dead—which in Hebrew slang can be used to describe “being crazy about” someone or something—as he reaches for a cup of coffee.

“I’m crazy about coffee. You know what? I’m crazy about my people,” Netanyahu tells the aide.

Reuters verified the video’s location from file imagery of the cafe, which matched the interiors seen in the video. The date was verified from multiple videos and photos of Netanyahu’s visit posted by the cafe on Sunday.

Since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, Netanyahu has visited at least two towns hit by Iranian missiles, a hospital, port and military bases, but there was little to no media access, and videos were distributed by his office.

Netanyahu, who rarely gives interviews to Israeli press or holds news conferences, convened his first press conference since the start of the war via a video link on Thursday, a similar format to the one he used in June during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran.

Emergency safety restrictions in Israel since the start of the war ban public gatherings and have kept most people at home or close to shelters and safe rooms, with schools shut across most of the country.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Elwely Elwelly in Dubai; Editing by Aidan Lewis)