As the US attack on Iran continues, Iranian state media Tasnim has speculated about the health status of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Tasnim, the IRGC-backed media organisation, has claimed that “unverified social media claims that Iran bombed the home of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and killed his brother”.
Tasnim has reportedly presented a series of “circumstantial evidence” to support its claim, which includes how there was no video footage of Netanyahu for the last few days to push its argument.
The evidence” presented by Iranian media was the claim by former US intelligence officer Scott Ritter, cited through Russian media, that Iran had bombed Netanyahu’s hideout and that his brother had been killed. However, Tasnim itself noted that the speculation had not been officially confirmed or denied. Ritter also claimed that Israel Minister of Internal Security Itamar Ben-Gvir was also injured in the attack.
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“Nearly three days have passed since the last video of Netanyahu aired on his personal channel, and nearly four days have passed since the last images of him were published. Since then, the few statements made by Netanyahu have been textual,” said a report that appeared on another Iranian website, Afkar News.
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It also claimed that some Hebrew sources also wrote that two nights ago (the night of March 8), the security perimeter around Netanyahu's house had been tightened to counter suicide drones. “It is said that this was the reason why the trip to Israel by Kushner (Trump's son-in-law) and Whitaker (Trump's special representative) was cancelled. The Elysee Palace also did not say in its news release about the telephone conversation between French President Macron and Netanyahu on the date of the conversation, and only the text of the alleged conversation was published,” a report went on to further speculate.
Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post hit out at the Iranian media for the statement, calling Tasnim’s piece a “pro-Iranian information warfare, with real fragments of public information stitched together into a dramatic narrative, then circulated as if they point to a hidden event.”
The Post said that Netanyahu delivered an official statement published by the Prime Minister’s Office on March 7, and the Israeli government’s main portal also listed him as having visited an impact site in Beersheba on March 6. Independent reports in recent days have likewise referred to his public activity, including a phone call with Macron.