On Friday, June 13, Israel launched an attack targeting Iran’s nuclear and military facilities. In response, Iran fired missiles at Israel. Since then, counterattacks between the two countries have been ongoing. In this context, a video showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu running has recently been circulated on social media, with the claim: “He took shelter in a 230-story-deep underground bunker due to Iran’s attack. Benjamin Netanyahu.”
See such claims in posts shared on Facebook here (archived) and here (archived).
As of the publication of this report, the above-mentioned videos circulated with this claim have been viewed over 3.3 million times and received reactions from nearly 58,000 separate accounts.
Fact Check
The Rumor Scanner team’s investigation revealed that the circulated video does not show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu running to a bunker to take shelter from an Iranian attack. Instead, the video shows Netanyahu running during participation in elections in 2021.
During the investigation, a report published on December 13, 2021, by Israeli media outlet Arutz Sheva (ערוץ 7) was found. A video attached to that report matches the video circulated with the discussed claim.
According to the report, the video shows Benjamin Netanyahu running inside Israel’s legislative body, the Knesset, to take part in a vote held in December 2021.
Benjamin Netanyahu himself shared the video on his X account on December 13, 2021, with the caption: “I am always proud to work for you (Israel).”
It is worth noting that during tensions between Iran and Israel in 2024, the same video was circulated claiming it showed Netanyahu fleeing to avoid an Iranian missile strike. At that time, the Rumor Scanner team also published a fact-check report on this matter.
Therefore, the video of Benjamin Netanyahu running inside Israel’s legislative building in 2021 to participate in a vote has been recently circulated falsely claiming it shows Netanyahu running to take shelter in a bunker from an Iranian missile attack—which is untrue.
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