Claim: A viral video shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being seriously injured in an attack in Tel Aviv in October 2026, with a plane being sent to transport him to the United States.
Fact: The footage shows an attempted gun attack on Bulgarian politician Ahmed Dogan in Sofia on 19 January 2013, not an attack on Netanyahu.
On 29 October 2026, Soch Fact Check identified a Facebook reel shared by the page “Why ? I am Shia”, claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been seriously injured in an attack in Tel Aviv and that a plane was being sent to transport him to the United States.
The caption accompanying the video reads:
“#BREAKING_NOW 🚨 A very serious attack on Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, it seems he has sustained serious injuries, and a plane is being sent to transfer him to the United States. This is completely clear from the footage😂😂😂😂”
The accompanying video shows a man standing behind a lectern when another individual approaches him, leading to a confrontation before several people intervene.
Screenshot of the Facebook reel shared by “Why ? I am Shia”, falsely claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was seriously injured in an attack in Tel Aviv.
Fact or Fiction?
We previously investigated the same footage on 31 December 2024, when it was falsely presented as Netanyahu being attacked by Israeli MPs. For this claim, we compared the circulating video with older recordings and contemporaneous news reports.
Original footage dates back to January 2013
The viral clip shows a man speaking behind a lectern when another individual approaches him with a weapon. The two briefly struggle before several people intervene and restrain the attacker.
We examined keyframes from the circulating footage and noticed the Cyrillic lettering “ДПС” on the lectern. Searching for these exact characters led us to Bulgaria’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). The official website confirms that “ДПС” is the party’s abbreviation in Bulgarian.
Close-up of the lectern showing the Cyrillic letters “ДПС” in the January 2013 footage.
We compared the circulating footage with a video published by On Demand News on 19 January 2013, showing an attempted gun attack on Ahmed Dogan, who was then the leader of the MRF.
The video matches the currently circulating footage, including the Cyrillic lettering on the lectern, the attacker approaching the speaker with a weapon, and the intervention by people attending the event.
The same incident was documented in a video published by The Guardian on 21 January 2013, credited to Reuters.
An Associated Press report, published on 19 January 2013, further confirmed that the incident occurred during a party congress in Sofia, Bulgaria. It identified the attacker as Oktay Enimehmedov, a 25-year-old Bulgarian national who pointed a gas pistol towards Dogan while he was delivering a speech.
According to the report, no shots were fired, and Dogan escaped unharmed.
The matching visual details, original footage published in January 2013, and contemporaneous reporting establish that the viral clip shows an attack on Dogan in Sofia, Bulgaria, more than 13 years before the alleged attack on Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
Virality
The footage previously circulated with other false claims involving Netanyahu. In a fact-check published on 31 December 2024, Soch Fact Check documented posts alleging that Israeli MPs had attacked and beaten Netanyahu in parliament. Our earlier investigation found versions on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and X.
The footage resurfaced in October 2026 with a different allegation: that Netanyahu had been seriously injured in Tel Aviv and a plane was being sent to take him to the United States. This claim circulated on Facebook and X.
We also identified 16 distinct Facebook reels circulating versions of the claim.
Conclusion: The circulating video does not show an attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv. It shows an attempted gun attack on Bulgarian politician Ahmed Dogan in Sofia on 19 January 2013. The footage provides no evidence that Netanyahu was seriously injured or that a plane was being sent to transport him to the United States.
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com