Iddo Netanyahu was born in Jerusalem in 1952, youngest son of one of Israel''s most eminent historians. He is the youngest of three Netanyahu brothers. His oldest brother Yonatan was killed in a hostage rescue mission Operation Entebbe and is considered a war hero. His other brother, Benjamin, served as Prime Minister of Israel from 1996-1999.

After spending much of his childhood in the United States, he returned to Israel, where he enlisted in the army, serving in the same elite unit which carried out the Entebbe mission. After the Yom Kippur War, during his medical studies at the Hebrew University, he began his career as a writer of short stories, novels, and political articles. He currently divides his time between writing and medicine.