Amid the ongoing Israel-Iran tensions, a video showing a person being attacked in public is circulating on social media (here, here, and here) with the claim that it shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being assaulted by a citizen during the June 2025 Middle East crisis. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The video shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being assaulted by a citizen amid the ongoing June 2025 Israel-Iran tensions.
Fact: The video shows Turkey’s opposition leader, Özgür Özel, being slapped during a funeral event in Istanbul on 04 May 2025. The incident took place during the funeral of pro-Kurdish politician Sırrı Süreyya Önder. The attacker, a 66-year-old man with a criminal history, was immediately taken into custody. No credible reports confirm any such incident involving Israeli PM Netanyahu. The video has no connection to Netanyahu or the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon closely observing the viral video, we noticed a watermark with the logo “2Sayfaofficial.” A search on the internet led us to an Instagram account by that name. Upon reviewing the handle, we found a better resolution version of the same video (archived), uploaded on 04 May 2025, which confirms that the video predates the Israel-Iran conflict and is unrelated to it. The post’s description stated that the video shows CHP (Republican People’s Party) President Özgür Özel being attacked during a memorial service at AKM. An investigation has been launched into the incident.
Based on clues from the Instagram post, we used relevant keywords and found multiple media reports covering the incident (here, here, and here). According to these reports, Özgür Özel, leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was attacked in Istanbul on 04 May 2025 after attending the funeral of pro-Kurdish politician Sırrı Süreyya Önder. He was slapped in the face, and the attacker was immediately detained and taken into custody. The suspect, identified as 66-year-old S.T., has a criminal record from a 2004 case involving the murder of two of his children and injuries to two others.
We also found multiple reports covering this incident, which can be seen here, here, here, and here.
Additionally, we did not find any credible media reports about any such assault on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by a citizen amid the ongoing June 2025 Israel-Iran tensions. Given the significance of such an incident, it would have received widespread media coverage, but no such reports were found.
To sum up, a video of Turkey’s opposition leader, Özgür Özel, being attacked in Istanbul is falsely shared as an attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
