Pro-Iranian social media accounts have begun to spread false reports that senior Israeli figures have been killed in airstrikes during the war with the Islamic Republic, the JC can reveal.
The hoaxes have targeted prominent public figures, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Mossad Director David Barnea and Iddo Netanyahu, the brother of the Israeli prime minister.
One post by an account under the name of Adnan Rashid, whose bio describes the user as a “historian” and “human rights activist”, shared a photo of Ben-Gvir, captioned: “The pig died.”
In a follow-up post, Rashid added: “For those asking me who killed him.
"Quran has a perfect answer: Allah kills oppressors by oppressors.
"Keep going, this is more like it. Time for victims of genocides (Gaza and Syria) to celebrate. Eid has come early this year.”
At time of writing, the original post has received 1.5 million views but has not been labelled with a fact-checking Community Note on X.
However, the platform’s integrated AI chatbot, Grok, has confirmed to users who questioned the post that it is incorrect, saying: “No, Itamar Ben-Gvir (Israel's National Security Minister, shown in the photo) has not died.
"Social media rumours tying his death to recent regional events are unconfirmed and debunked by major news outlets – no official reports or evidence support it. Just another unsubstantiated claim.”
In Ben-Gvir’s case, some accounts misleadingly cited a 2024 BBC News article, which detailed a car accident in which the minister was involved that year, as evidence of a cover-up of his death in an Iranian strike by Israel.
"So the Israeli media reports Itamar Ben‑Gvir died in a ‘car crash’ while in fact he’s been obliterated by an Iranian missile strike on his home,” read another inaccurate post, which has 2.9 million views.
And a third, with over a million views, added: “Ben-Gvir, Iddo Netanyahu, David Barnea. All in one day— is simply not possible.
"Justice has seen some good days. But this is [Iranian] revolution-level good.”
Likewise, a prominent pro-Iran account shared what was purported to be a video of the aftermath of the strike, which “killed” Netanyahu.
The post, which has gained 1.9 million views, claimed the strike “targeted the Netanyahu family home”.
However, disinformation analyst Mohammed Zubair identified the clip as footage of a house fire in New Jersey last year.
Meanwhile, similar misinformation suggesting that Binyah Hevron, son of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, had been killed after his father confirmed he had been injured in a Hezbollah rocket attack while serving in the IDF.
Writing on X on Monday, Smotrich said: “Last Friday, terrorists fired a mortar shell toward Givati soldiers on the Lebanese border, and eight soldiers were wounded. One of them is my beloved son, Binyah Hevron.”
Nonetheless, one social media user shared an unsourced clip of several Israelis crying and claimed that Hevron’s death had been “confirmed”.
That post has attracted more than 83,000 views and was shared by former UFC fighter Jake Shields with his 900,000 followers.
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