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A few days ago, I woke up to discover that I had been killed.
At least according to the Iranian military.
A friend sent me a screenshot from a Facebook group called “Iranian Military.” In the post was a clear picture of me alongside seven other photos of Israeli IDF reservists. The caption was short and definitive:
“8 IDF soldiers gone.”
Apparently, I was one of them.
At first, I laughed. It felt absurd. The kind of bizarre internet rumor that appears for a moment and disappears just as quickly.
But then another message arrived. And then another.
Suddenly, it didn’t feel so funny.
The post was spreading online, and I realized something uncomfortable: my family might see it before hearing from me. So I immediately called my wife. Then my parents.
“Just so you know,” I told them, “according to the Iranian military, I’m dead.”
Dark humor helps in moments like this. But the experience quickly stopped being amusing.
Because this wasn’t random internet trolling. It was part of a strategy.
For years, the Iranian regime has invested heavily in psychological warfare and disinformation. Alongside missiles, drones, and proxy militias, it deploys another weapon: lies.
False reports about Israeli casualties. Manufactured battlefield victories. Rumors designed to spread fear and confusion.
Because psychological warfare is often the tool of those who cannot win on the battlefield.
When your military achievements are limited, you try to manufacture them online. When you cannot break your enemy physically, you try to break them emotionally.
Out of curiosity, I later visited the official Facebook page of the Iranian military. There I found low-quality AI-generated images portraying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as dead. As bizarre as it sounds, millions of Iranians consume their information through these channels. For many of them, this propaganda is presented not as fiction, but as fact.
In that sense, the goal is not only to intimidate Israelis. It is also to convince their own population that the regime is winning.
There is something almost surreal about being personally included in one of these fabricated victories.
The problem for Iran is that reality keeps getting in the way. I am writing these words very much alive.
And so are millions of Israelis who continue to go to work, raise families, serve in reserve units, and defend their country.
The Iranian regime can spread as many lies as it wants. It can declare imaginary victories and invent imaginary casualties.
But the truth is harder to manipulate.
Israelis are still here.
Still standing. Still fighting.
And apparently, at least in my case, we’re even fighting after we’ve already been declared dead.