ALBAWABA - Recently, rumors went around on social media that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a hidden funeral for a family member who died in an Iranian rocket strike.
The posts say that the funeral happened in a protected underground cave and that it was held in secret because Israeli intelligence services told the organizers to keep the news from getting out.
It was said that Netanyahu's sister, who was called "Yontan," died from injuries she got when someone attacked the family home. According to the posts, the Prime Minister also broke down in tears during the service and allegedly said, "Forgive me, Yontan." I wasn't able to keep you safe. We are all part of this war.
The Polygraph fact-checking team at Alaraby TV, on the other hand, found that the picture used to support the claims was taken in July 2019. In it, Netanyahu visits the grave of his late brother Yonatan Netanyahu, who was a military hero and died in the Entebbe raid in Uganda in 1976.
The people who checked the facts said that the picture was taken at a yearly memorial service, not at a secret funeral in 2025. They came to the conclusion that the posts that went popular were based on false information, but they did admit that one part of it was true: Israel currently has tight media control, especially when it comes to secret wartime developments.
During the most recent 12-day war with Iran, Israel has not released exact numbers on the number of deaths or damage to infrastructure. Also, all information made public is highly controlled by military secrecy laws. Because of this, whispers and guesswork have filled in the gaps in accurate news, leading to false stories like the secret funeral claim.
