New Delhi, March 20 -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held his first in-person press conference since the start of the war with Iran. He opened by dismissing viral rumours about his death as "fake news". "I'm alive, and you're all witnesses," he said.

On Israel's strategy of targeting senior Iranian leadership, Netanyahu defended the approach as a deliberate effort to destabilise the regime from within.

"This is part of the effort to crack the regime. It's not going to happen in one day or even in 20 days," he said.

He added that visible "cracks" were already appearing, and Israel was working to accelerate them.

Netanyahu confirmed he had made a personal commitment to US President Donald Trump not to strike Iran's oil and n...