Viral video claiming death of Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother is actually old footage from a U.S. house fire
A video circulating on Facebook claims that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother, Iddo Netanyahu, was killed in an Iranian missile strike on the Netanyahu family home. A Dismislab fact-check finds the claim to be false. The footage is old, and the actual incident took place in the United States. Local media reports confirm the video shows a house fire in New Jersey. No credible information has surfaced to indicate that Iddo Netanyahu has been killed.
On March 10, a Facebook page called “Naf News BD” posted an image with the caption: “In an Iranian missile attack on Netanyahu’s family home, Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother Iddo Netanyahu has been killed.” Many users in the comments appeared to believe the claim. One wrote, “He is definitely dead — this is 100% true; he died at 4 a.m. today.” Another commented, “If true, Alhamdulillah.”
Multiple personal profiles (1, 2) and a page also shared the same footage with the same allegation. The video shows the roof of a two‑story house engulfed in flames as firefighters spray water to control the blaze. At the end of the video, a photo of Iddo Netanyahu appears on screen.
Reverse image searches of key frames led Dismislab to a video posted on February 9 by a Facebook page named HCB Photography. Its caption reads: “What’s happening now: Park Place, Galloway, NJ — 10:47 p.m. | 16° | #2/3.” The viral footage matches this video exactly.
A keyword search revealed a February 10 report published by BreakingAC.com, a local U.S. news outlet, titled “UPDATE: No one injured in Sunday’s Galloway house fire.” The article states that a fire broke out at a home in Galloway Township between late Sunday night and early Monday morning. According to Galloway Township police, freezing temperatures and accumulated ice and snow around the area made fire‑fighting efforts more difficult. The report features an image identical to the one in the viral posts, credited to HCB Photography.
A separate fact-check report, published by VerifySY, also confirmed the video is from the United States and has no connection to any fire at the home of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Notably, several media outlets had published unverified claims—citing former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter and Pakistani news sources— that Iddo Netanyahu was killed in an Iranian missile strike amid the ongoing Iran-Israel-U.S. conflict (1, 2, 3). However, Israeli authorities have issued no official confirmation, and no international news agency has reported such an incident.
In short, the video circulating with the claim that Iddo Netanyahu was killed in an Iranian missile strike is miscaptioned. It is old footage of a house fire in New Jersey and has no connection to the Netanyahu family or the current conflict.
