With the Iran war nearing its second week, social media posts shared unfounded reports that a key Israeli political figure was killed.
A March 9 X post showing an image of Israel National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Israeli and Iranian media reported his death.
“BREAKING: So the Israeli media reports Itamar Ben‑Gvir died in a ‘car crash,’” the post read, garnering more than 623,000 views as of the morning of March 11. “While in fact he’s been obliterated by an Iranian missile strike on his home.”
(Screenshot of X post.)
The far-right Ben-Gvir has advocated relocating Palestinians from Gaza. He has also been convicted for supporting terrorism and inciting anti-Arab racism, CNN reported in 2024. In January 2025, Ben-Gvir resigned in protest of a Gaza ceasefire dealbut Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet reappointed him in March 2025.
Hundreds of people have been killed across the Middle East during the Iran war, but Ben-Gvir isn’t among them. He also hasn’t been in a recent car accident, as the social media posts claim.
Ben-Gvir was injured and taken to the hospital after a car accident in 2024 as he returned from a stabbing scene in the city of Ramle, Israel. But neither the Israeli government nor any credible news outlets have released any recent reports about Ben-Gvir’s demise, either from an automobile accident or from a strike on his home.
Ben-Gvir’s verified TikTok account posted a March 10 video in Hebrew with the caption, “I’m alive, God willing,” and he went on to debunk clips and headlines that said he was dead. We translated the video and caption from Hebrew to English using Google Lens and Google Translate.
Ben-Gvir also posted March 10 at least three times on his X and Telegram accounts.
Other news outlets have also debunked the claim that Ben-Gvir is dead.
An Iran war report from the Israeli government (which we translated from Hebrew to English using Google Translate) says the claim that Ben-Gvir was killed by an Iranian attack isn’t true, and that its purpose is to “create the impression that Iran is capable of penetrating Israel’s security alignment and directly harming key decision-makers.”
We rate the claim that Ben-Gvir died False.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
