TheGaza war has been extensively covered by media outlets around the world. This coverage has been diverse, spanning from traditional news outlets tosocial media platforms, and comprises a wide variety of perspectives and narratives.
During the conflict, Israel imposed strict controls on international journalists, requiring military escorts and pre-broadcast reviews of their footage. In January 2024, theSupreme Court of Israel upheld these requirements on security grounds. Prominent U.S. media organizations likeNBC andCNN confirmed that Israel had the authority to approve content from Gaza, with journalists embedded with the Israeli military required to submit materials for review.
Social media has played a significant role in sharing information, with platforms likeTikTok seeing billions of views on related content. Research showed a vast disparity in the number of pro-Palestinian versus pro-Israeli posts. The conflict has led to the spread of misleading information and propaganda.Hamas has been banned from most social media platforms, although content from the group still circulates on sites likeTelegram. In Gaza, local content creators documented their experiences, gaining significant followings.
In Israel, social media has been used to garner support for military actions, with the government running ads portraying Hamas negatively. Some Israeli influencers and content creators have mocked and dehumanizedPalestinians, leading to widespread criticism. Videos posted by Israeli soldiers showing abuse and destruction in Gaza have gone viral, prompting international condemnation and internal investigations by the Israel Defence Forces.
The war has had a severe impact on Gaza's infrastructure and economy, with extensive damage to homes, hospitals, schools, and essential services. The conflict has caused significant job losses and economic decline in both theGaza Strip and theWest Bank. International scrutiny and media coverage have highlighted the human toll and the challenges faced by journalists operating in the region.
Social media has played a major part in sharing information about the conflict, especially platforms like TikTok where war-related videos have garnered billions of views. As of 10 October 2023[update], thehashtag #Palestine has some 27.8 billion views, and the hashtag #Israel has 23 billion on TikTok.[1] Similar statistics were seen in later analysis with research done by the company Humanz, a tech company founded by formerIDF intelligence officers. Humanz showed that during October 2023 there were 7.39 billion posts with pro-Israeli tags posted to Instagram and TikTok, while there were 109.61 billion posts with pro-Palestinian tags published on the sites in the same time.[2] The documentation and spreading of information of the conflict is not a new phenomenon with multiple clips showing the continued conflict going viral since the app was first public.[3] However, this has also resulted in the dissemination of misleading information and propaganda.[4][5][6][7]
In mid-October, the Communications and digital ministerFahmi Fadzil confirmed that theMalaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) would meet with TikTok's parent companyByteDance following complaints from Malaysian TikTok users that content containing words like Hamas were removed by the social media company.[8][9]
In the hours after the attack, Hamas "employed a broad, sophisticated media strategy" using bot accounts to spread graphic, emotionally charged and false propaganda that was picked up and repeated by official accounts and foreign governments. Cyabra, an Israeli social media intelligence company found that on the day after the attack, one in four posts about the conflict onFacebook,Instagram, TikTok andX were from fake accounts.The New York Times described the start of the Gaza war as releasing a "deluge of online propaganda and disinformation" that was "larger than anything seen before". It described the conflict as "fast becoming a world war online" and stated thatRussia,China,Iran andits proxies had used state media and covert influence campaigns on social media networks to support Hamas, undermine Israel, criticize the United States and cause unrest.James Rubin of the U.S. State Department'sGlobal Engagement Center called coverage of the conflict as being swept up in "an undeclared information war with authoritarian countries".[10]
Hamas has been barred from most social media sites and are unable to post on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok; however, some content from the group has been posted on other sites such as Telegram, where an account reportedly aligned to Hamas would post photos and videos in support of Hamas or documenting their actions, per theAtlantic Council.[11] Following the attack, Hamas used bot accounts originating in countries such as Pakistan to sidestep bans on Facebook and X.[10]
In Gaza, youngcontent creators, such asHind Khoudary,Plestia Alaqad,Motaz Azaiza, andBisan Owda, documented their lives through the war, gaining significant followings on social media.[12][13][14] A food blogger,Hamada Shaqoura, went viral on social media with videos of himself cooking meals out of canned humanitarian aid and distributing them to displaced children.[15][16][17] In Yemen, teenage influencer Rashid, nicknamed "Timhouthi Chalamet",[18] went viral on TikTok and X after posting a video of himself touring the captured shipGalaxy Leader and was later interviewed by streamerHasan Piker.[19][20] An image of a teenage boy holding onto his deceased mother in Gaza went viral on social media in February 2024.[21] In June 2024, a formerMeta employee sued the company for wrongful termination, stating it was suppressing Palestinian content.[22] In July 2024, a Meta spokesperson stated an interview withJeremy Scahill onDemocracy Now! had been erroneously removed and was restored.[23]
In March 2025, Israel raised claims that Gaza based blogger Salah al-Ja'frawi, who reportedly is known as "Hamas' social media star' raised funds for Hamas, and the rebuilding ofNasser Hospital inKhan Younis before pocketing the donations totaling about $4 million. The Palestinian Health Ministry issued a statement that denied any involvement with the fundraising via social media, and the ministry and Palestinian activist Mustafa Asfour condemned the actions.[24]
In January 2024The Intercept reported that Israel tech volunteers in the group Iron Truth used their personal connections with those inBig Tech, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X, to censor information from social media they deemed to be harmful to Israeli interests.[25] The project was launched after October 7 by Dani Kaganovitch, a Tel Aviv-based software engineer at Google. A bot on Telegram was created to forward all flagged content to "sympathetic insiders" at Big Tech companies who would then act to remove it.The Intercept reported that "So far, nearly 2,000 participants have flagged a wide variety of posts for removal, from content that’s clearly racist or false to posts that are merely critical of Israel or sympathetic to Palestinians, according to chat logs reviewed by The Intercept."[25] Emerson Brooking, a fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, toldThe Intercept: "They’re not trying to ensure an open, secure, accessible online space for all, free from disinformation. They’re trying to target and remove information and disinformation that they see as harmful or dangerous to Israelis.”[25] Kaganovitch said the project also has allies outside Israel’s Silicon Valley. The group's organizers met with the director of a controversial Israeli government cyber unit, and its core team of more than 50 volunteers and 10 programmers includes a former member of the Israeli Parliament.[25]
Videos of the attacks against Israel and its citizens were reportedly spread through paid partnership with theIsraeli Foreign Affairs Ministry, and is a part of the Israeli governments sweeping social media campaign to build support for its military actions.[26] Reportedly in the week following the October attacks by Hamas, Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry had run about 30 ads that were seen over 4 million times on X, which portrayed Hamas as a "vicious terrorist group" similar toISIS.[27]
Israeli travel blogger and social influencer Ella Kenan pivoted her content shortly after the 7 October attacks and began to push the hashtag 'HamasIsISIS' through her 200,000 followers.[28] She also created a poster stating 'Greta Thunberg Supports ISIS' after Thunberg posted a picture of herself and friends at a rally for Gaza. The poster spread across multiple different social networks.[29]
In early November 2023, asatirical video created by Israeli actressNoa Tishby was criticized for beingIslamophobic andQueer-phobic after it went viral. The video was captioned as showing "...pro-Hamas college students on their journey to normalizing a massacre", adding that "a huge part of our Jewish culture is using humor to deal with trauma." In the video the actors stated that "everyone is welcome,LGBTQH..." with the H to stand for Hamas and held a fake interview with a freedom fighter in Gaza, while wearing outfits that were "oppression chic."[30]
In December 2023 it was reported that a Telegram channel with at the time about 10,500 members was created and run by the IDF's Influencing Department. The channel was originally titled "The Avengers" but was soon changed to Azazel, to sound closer to the Hebrew pronunciation for Gaza and another word forhell and had posted over 700 photos and videos. Many of the videos showed the destruction of Gaza and mocking it or degrading Palestinians such as images where two Palestinian men were dressed as pigs and captioned claiming they were roaches and products ofincest.[31]
Social media platforms saw trends spreading misinformation and mocking the conflict and dehumanising Palestinians. An Israeli special effects and makeup artist drew ire and contempt from other users after posting a video of her pretending to be a Palestinian mother pleading for help before calling cut. Another part of the video shows her applying bruises with makeup with many calling out the insensitivity it showed.[32] Other videos reportedly created and posted by Israeli citizens showed them mocking different aspects of the suffering of those in Palestine, with some wearing traditional dress and using makeup and talcum powder to appear to be suffering from the bombs, while others flaunt water and electricity whilePalestinians have been cut off from those services.[33][34][35]
Shortly after theSeptember 2024 electronic device attacks in Lebanon, which caused the death of Hezbollah members, civilians and children, many Israeli and pro-Israel content creators began a trend mocking the explosions. Many, such as Israeli internet personality Noya Cohen, dressed in Muslin head scarf's andkeffiyehs and picked up phones which then mock explode in their hands. Others such as pro-Israeli commentators likeMichael Rapaport made comments and laughed at the explosion and resulting casualties.[36]
The official IDF channel for informing international media is theInternational Media Branch of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, which also runs social media accounts.[37] Lt. Col. Richard Hecht became head of the IMB in 2019,[38] but his predecessorPeter Lerner, who had retired from the IDF, came out of retirement to join the unit again after the Hamas attack.Jonathan Conricus also held interviews with foreign media.[39] The IDF has a profile on TikTok, which had 1.7 million followers in 2021.[3] Since the outbreak of the war, some IDF soldiers have independently gone viral and amassed large followings on social media. While some were viral videos, others created channels to document the daily life of soldiers during the war.[40]
Videos posted by Israeli soldiers mocking, denigrating, and abusing Palestinians went viral, some of the most violent were used by South Africa at its ICJ case.[41][42] In a video posted by in Gaza in late-January 2024, an Israeli soldier posed smiling as an entire neighborhood was blown up by the IDF.[43] In another, an Israeli soldiers coerced blindfolded Palestinian detainees to pledge themselves as slaves.[44] Widely-circulated video and images at around 7 December 2023, showeddozens of Palestinian men in Northern Gaza blindfolded, stripped partially naked, and kneeling on the ground, guarded by Israeli soldiers.[45] Other videos have shown IDF troops since the start of the conflict, purposefully destroying businesses while laughing, setting goods on fire while still in a vehicle, and going through private Gazan citizens' belongings.[46][47] These videos and actions were condemned by IDF officials after being questioned on the members actions.[48]
In February 2024, an image went viral showing an IDF soldier standing over an injured Palestinian man stripped naked and strapped to a chair. The U.S. Department of State responded to the viral photo stating it was "deeply troubled".[49] The image was included in a BBC News Verify investigation along with several hundred other videos posted by IDF soldiers who had made no effort to conceal their identities. IDF officials initially stated that they had terminated the service of one soldier engaging in a potential breach of international law and identified by the BBC. However, they have now included the agreement that it will continue to act to identify unusual cases that potentially show misconduct. Other videos in the review include hundreds of detainees, with most stripped to their underwear, blindfolded and kneeling in front of the Israeli flag, while watched by IDF members, and interspersed with soldiers posing with guns.[50]
Some of the videos posted appear to show IDF members pushing for theIsraeli resettlement of Gaza, afterillegal Israeli settlements had been evacuated in 2005. An IDFRabbi Capt. Avihai Friedman was recorded telling a group of IDF soldiers that "It’s our country, all of it — Gaza too.....The whole promised land", while other soldiers expressed their support.[51] In October 2024, an investigation into the social media posts of soldiers in Israel's 749 Combat Engineering Battalion found that their mission was "nothing less than a systematic, concerted, and deliberate effort" to erase the future of Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, according to independent outletDrop Site News.[52]
Videos and pictures of Israeli soldiers going throughPalestinian women's underwear in Gaza went viral, leading MIFTAH, a Palestinian women's advocacy organization, to state they showed "depravity".[53]
In May 2024, BBC News reported on a small review of about 45 photos and videos posted by IDF troops from military actions into the occupied West Bank, which showed multiple instances of soldier misconduct. Actions documented and posted included entering homes at night and detaining Palestinians by blindfolding, binding them, at times removing women's headscarves or forcing them to say "Am Yisrael Chai" (The people of Israel live).[54] In an October 2024 documentary, Al Jazeera published footage from IDF troops accounts of their actions in Gaza, with Palestinian novelistSusan Abulhawa being quoted as saying "We live in an era of technology, and this has been described as the first live-streamed genocide in history." Some of the war crime claims raised in the documentary with the corresponding footage from social media accounts are that the IDF systematically target civilians, journalists, and others, ransacking homes, gleefully celebrating explosions, and going through women's underwear drawers.[55][56]
In November 2024, IDF soldiers expressed surprise at efforts to identify them through their online activity, and worried about potential repercussions.[57]
Activists used social media, such asX andTikTok, to share information about the war.[58] Pro-Palestinian activists adopted the watermelon emoji[a]as a symbol to represent solidarity with the people of Gaza.[59]TikTok was a source of ire for some, with people such as former US presidentBarack Obama criticizing "TikTok activism" for obscuring context.[60] Celebrities, includingSacha Baron Cohen andAmy Schumer, held a private meeting with TikTok executives accusing them of spreading antisemitism.[61] TikTok stated it was not biased, but that young people were organically more supportive of Palestine.[62] On 18 November,Elon Musk announced any user who used the phrases "decolonization" or "from the river to the sea" would be suspended from X.[63][b] Pro-Palestinian content creators in the U.S. reported widespreadshadowbanning.[66] Critics of Israel also alleged they were censored or shadowbanned on the comment sections ofFinnish national media outlets in November.[67]
Anonymous Sudan, a hacker group, launched aDDoS attack onChatGPT[68][69] after Tal Broda – a member ofOpenAI's leadership – made social media posts which expressed support for Israel and called for more intense bombing in Gaza.[69][70][71]
In January 2024, the Israeli government reportedly purchased a technological system for conducting large-scale influence campaigns online.[72] In February 2024, Israeli supporters adopted AI tools to report pro-Palestinian content en masse for supposedly violating site guidelines.[73]
Misinformation in the Gaza war is generated bymachine learning models were used by activists to solicit support, as well as to create the artificial impression of broader support.[74] AI-generated images anddeepfakes went viral online, though they were simultaneously fact-checked.[75][76] Technology companies were accused of profiting from AI-generated images related to the war,[77] as well as for building models that generated content reflectinganti-Palestinian biases.[78]
TheIsraeli prosecutor's office sent over 8,000 removal requests toMeta and TikTok for content related to the war, resulting in 94% of the requests being removed.[79]The Intercept reported Meta had allowed Hebrew and Arabic-language ads, generated by digital rights advocates to test the limits ofFacebook's machine-learning moderation, calling for a "holocaust for the Palestinians".[80] In December 2023, Meta's independentoversight board released a report stating Facebook overly censored conflict-related posts, with civil rights organizations stating Meta had suppressed Palestinian content.[81]Influence operations linked to Iran have been identified by Microsoft and OpenAI, "intended to undermine support for Israel and trust in U.S. democracy more broadly", using artificial intelligence tools.[82] Analyst John Hultquist of Google's Mandiant Intelligence noted the creativity of Iran-based influence networks, referring to accounts on X pretending to be left-leaning Americans supporting the Palestinian cause which were found in 2022. During the Gaza war, Iran's strategy has included providing financial assistance, and posing as students, to stoke student-organized protests.[82]
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Messaging apps such asTelegram have been utilized to share information regarding the conflict. Nonetheless, these platforms have been criticized[by whom?] for inadequate content moderation, enabling the dissemination of violent videos and false information.[4] X (formerlyTwitter) was criticized by theEuropean Union for not taking action againstfake news spreaders in the website.[83]
In October 2023,Slate reporter Stephen Harrison praised theEnglish Wikipedia for its coverage of the war, noting that it "retains the seemingly traditional policy of requiring that most its information derive fromreliable secondary sources such as newspapers, not primary sources like an individual's social media posts... this old-school rule—requiring vetting and publication from a traditional media outlet—seems to have shielded Wikipedia from some of the latest social mediadisinformation campaigns."[84]
TheHebrew Wikipedia has experiencededit wars over content related to the war.[85] TheArabic Wikipedia has expressed solidarity with Palestinians, and briefly shut down in December 2023 for a day "in support of the residents of the Gaza Strip and in protest of the continuing attacks, while calling for an end to the war and the spread of peace."[86]
TheWorld Jewish Congress stated in a March 2024 report that "The state of the articles dealing with the conflict is alarming in its lack of neutrality."[87] The English Wikipediacategorized theAnti-Defamation League as an unreliable source on the conflict in June 2024,[88][89][90] drawing condemnation from the organization.[88][90]
During the conflict, the Israeli government and Israeli cyber companies have deployedartificial intelligence (AI) tools andbot farms to spread disinformation and spread graphic, emotionally charged and false propaganda to dehumanize Palestinians, sow division among supporters of Palestine by targeting Black lawmakers, and exert pressure on politicians to support Israel's actions.[92][93][94]The Intercept reported that: "At the center of Israel’s information warfare campaign is a tactical mission to dehumanize Palestinians and to flood the public discourse with a stream of false, unsubstantiated, and unverifiable allegations."[94] One such covert campaign was commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. The ministry allocated about $2 million to the operation, and used political marketing firm Stoic based in Tel Aviv to carry it out, according officials and documents reviewed byThe New York Times.[92] The campaign was started after the October 7 attack, and remained active on X at the time ofThe New York Times report in June 2024. At the peak of the campaign it used hundreds of fake accounts posing as Americans on X, Facebook and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments, focusing on U.S. lawmakers, particularly those who are Black and from the Democratic Party, includingHakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from New York, andRaphael Warnock, Senator from Georgia.ChatGPT was deployed to generate many of the posts. The campaign also involved the creation of three fake English-language news sites featuring pro-Israel articles.[92]
The use of AI to draw attention to both sides has been used throughout the war, with creators spreading the images which was seen by thousands of individuals. On March 2024, an AI-image that attempted to call attention to the ongoing war was shared from a pro-Palestinian account with the roofs of refugee tents spelling out "All Eyes on Rafah" after an Israeli airstrike reportedly started amassive fire in the Rafah refugee camp.[95][96]
In February 2025 a pro-Israeli social media account posted a video promoting the idea ofTrumps reimagined and taken over Gaza, which was later posted by Trump on his Truth Social and Instagram accounts. The video showed multiple images of a Gaza rebuilt to focus on Trump, including a golden statue of Trump and ended with a shot of Trump and Netanyahu sunbathing on a Gaza beach. The video was one of many photos and videos created by AI that were posted to pro-Israeli accounts, that championed the idea of Trump and Israel taking over Gaza.[97]
Israel requires all international journalists covering the war from Gaza to be accompanied by Israeli military escorts and to allow the military to review their footage before broadcast.[98] As a condition for gaining entry into Gaza with Israeli protection, US media organizations CNN and NBC have consented to Israel's military overseeing and limiting the activities of their journalists in the region. This development follows a period of media blackout and the loss of 34 Palestinian journalists in Gaza.[99] On 9 January, theIsraeli Supreme Court ruled there was no requirement to loosen its requirements on journalists' entry, citing security grounds.[100]
Direct attacks on telecommunications infrastructure by Israel, electricity blockades and fuel shortages have caused the near-total collapse of Gaza's largest cell network providers.[101][102][103] Lack of internet access has obstructed people in Gaza including journalists from communicating with people outside Gaza.[101] The Egyptian journalist and writerMirna El Helbawi discovered that eSIMs (a programmableSIM card built into a smartphone[104]) could be used by people in Gaza to connect to remotetelecommunication networks whilstroaming (primarily Egyptian and Israeli networks).[105][106] The first people she was able to connect by this method were Egyptian journalist Ahmed El-Madhoun and Palestinian journalistHind Khoudary.[107] By December 2023, 200,000 Gazans (approximately 10% of the population) had received internet access through an eSIM provided byConnecting Humanity.[108]
In July 2024, the Foreign Press Association criticized Israel for imposing an "information blackout" on Gaza, stating, "It raises questions about what Israel doesn't want international journalists to see".[109] The same month, more than 60 of the world's largest media organizations called on Israel to allow international media access into the Gaza Strip.[110]
On 11 October 2023, theIsraeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) started a channel that scrolls through the names of the people killed in the October 7 attack, much like the broadcasts on Israel's Memorial Day.[111] On 22 October, home front alerts started showing in English oni24NEWS's English channel.[112]
On 26 December 2023, an anti-tank missile from a Hezbollah unit hit next toChannel 13 News team while they were interviewing farmer atDovev, for an article following a prior Hezbollah assault that killed an employee of theIsrael Electric Corporation, and injured five workers who were repairing electric lines.[113] On 6 January, while an Israeli journalist crew carried out an interview in the middle of a road inTuffah, they were fired upon. Omri Assenheim, who conducted the interview, commented that "journalism must be done during the war as well, even if it's dangerous. I don't have a death wish."[114]
On 13 February 2024, Israel'sSecond Authority for Television and Radio opened an inquiry intoChannel 13 for a show panelist saying "Netanyahu Wants Hostages Dead".[115][116] On February 20, A bill proposed byZvika Fogel would grant the power to close local offices and restrict access to websites of international media outlets deemed "harmful to state security" to National Security MinisterItamar Ben-Gvir.[117][118]
Between February and March 2024, mainstream Israeli television networksChannels 14 and13 aired videos, reportedly described as "snuff films" which appear to show detained Palestinian prisoners being mistreated inside Israeli prisons. The videos are described as actual interrogation sessions of prisoners, who are shown bound and blindfolded, while being made to kneel on the floor. A warden is recorded stating "They have no mattresses ... They have nothing…we control them 100%—their food, their shackling, their sleep ... [we] show them we are the masters of the house".[119] In August 2024, an IDF soldier who wasaccused of raping a Palestinian detainee at theSde Teiman detention camp was interviewed on television.[120]
Haaretz's Itay Rom has criticized the media for its alleged bias against Israel. He gave several examples of "flimsy reporting" fromCNN,BBC andSky News, of which he believes result from ingrained belief that Israel is the "villain" of the story, which allows any claim made against it—even ones that are proven false—to pass. He wrote that "while attitudes towards Israel's claims is somewhere along the spectrum between healthy journalistic skepticism and complete distrust, Hamas's claims about the numbers of killed civilians in the Strip are accepted as the word of God." He also has raised criticisms against Israeli media, much of which, he states, "ignores and erases the Gazan story".[121]
Israeli comedy showEretz Nehederet has aired several sketches in English since the beginning of the war, criticizing the BBC's alleged anti-Israel bias. One of the sketches shows the BBC taking Hamas's attribution at face value immediately, praising Hamas as “the most credible not-terrorist organization in the world” and ignoring a Hamas fighter that admits firing rocket at own hospital. Another sketch portrayed a sympathetic mock "interview" with Yahya Sinwar, stating "Hamas freedom fighters peacefully attacked Israel", and a mock BBC anchor saying "Hamas is left with no human shields at all! So unfair", later referring to Israeli kidnapped crying babies as "torturing him through sleep deprivation" and "occupying his house". The sketches went viral online.[122][123]
TheIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) has a designatedSpokesperson's Unit which is responsible for the IDF's information policy and deals with the media relations during peace and wartime. It serves as a liaison between the military and the domestic and foreign media markets as well as the general public and is a key player for thepublic diplomacy of Israel.[124][125]
Public media such asČT24 or iRozhlas and mainstream channels such asSeznam.cz have a strong pro-Israel stance.[126]
At the start of Ramadan, the French newspaperLibération ran a cartoon mocking the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, showing a woman scolding a man chasing after rats and cockroaches because it was not yet time to break fast.[127]
On 25 October,Axios reported that US Secretary of StateAntony Blinken had askedQatari prime ministerSheikhMohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani to moderateAl Jazeera's coverage of the war. It is believed that Blinken was referring to Al Jazeera'sArabic language channel and not itsEnglish channels.[128][129]
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting published images of the capture of commanders ofNagorno-Karabakh by theAzerbaijani army inSeptember 2023 as the capture of Israeli commanders by Hamas.[130][131][132] Mohammadreza Bagheri, a presenter at channel 3 of Iran Broadcasting, said that the viewers should not worry about the dead or wounded Israelis, no matter if they are soldiers or civilians, because they are all occupiers who live in the lands and homes of Palestinians.[133][134]
In March 2024, analysis by theMuslim Council of Britain's Centre for Media Monitoring found that British media coverage had consistently been "favourable to an Israeli narrative which has constantly promoted the attacks on Gaza and in the West Bank as a war between light and darkness".[135]
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In October 2023, theBBC was criticized by journalists[136][137] and the UKSecretary of State for DefenceGrant Shapps,[138] for using the term "militants" over "terrorists" to refer to members ofHamas, which the British government considers to be a terrorist organization. The BBC responded with a statement saying that to report objectively, they would not use the term "terrorist" without attribution, and that they had featured contributors who have described Hamas as terrorists.[138][139]
In November 2023BBC News Arabic launchedGaza Daily in response to the ongoing conflict and to provide any listeners in Gaza with the latest information and developments, along with safety advice and where to find humanitarian aid.[140]
Analysis of BBC coverage byopenDemocracy published at the start of 2024 found Palestinian perspectives were "totally absent" from the network's coverage, and that the BBC's coverage regularly described Israeli deaths with words like "murder", "massacre", "atrocity", and "slaughter" but not for Palestinian deaths.[141]
On 19 October,The Guardian announced the dismissal of editorial cartoonistSteve Bell, who had been contributing to the newspaper since 1983, after he made a caricature of Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu holding a scalpel and preparing to make a Gaza Strip-shaped incision in his abdomen. While Bell said it was inspired by a similar caricature of US PresidentLyndon Johnson during theVietnam War, he said he was accused of antisemitism for allegedly evoking the "pound of flesh" demanded by the Jewish characterShylock inWilliam Shakespeare's playThe Merchant of Venice.[142]
Egyptian comedian, television host and surgeonBassem Youssef, who is best known for hissatirical comedy, was interviewed byPiers Morgan for hisPiers Morgan Uncensored show on October 17 and November 1. Youssef pointed out the context of theIsrael-Palestine conflict, the juxtaposition against theUkrainian-Russia war and the ongoingGaza war often in his satirical humor.[143][144]
In January 2024, a news report onSky News received heavy criticism for describing a lethal Israeli shooting of a three-year-old toddler as the death of a "young lady" after "accidentally a stray bullet found its way into the van".[145]Sky News apologized "unreservedly" to MKDanny Danon for the "complete inappropriateness " of a Sky correspondent asking Danon how his calls for the "relocation" for Gazans were different than "relocations" that occurred during World War II.[146] In an open letter, Danon urgedSky to fire the woman who had asked him the question.[147]
A January 2024 interview betweenJulia Hartley-Brewer andMustafa Barghouti onTalkTV sparked more than 15,000 complaints toOfcom after Hartley-Brewer repeatedly cut off and screamed at Barghouti.[148]
During a public discussion titled "The Challenges and Dilemmas of Covering the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," Janine Zacharia, a former Middle East correspondent and Stanford lecturer, provided valuable insights into how major news organizations approach reporting on the Gaza war. The event, hosted by Stanford's Department of Communication, was part of a series of educational initiatives organized by the university to enhance comprehension of the conflict's intricate history and complexities.[149]
According to JournalistRami George Khouri, there are three types of media in the United States: The mainstream media, which is steadily losing its advertising and audience, and which broadly reflects the views of the American and Israeli governments; Independent and progressive media that challenge mainstream views but struggle to survive financially; and the kaleidoscopic world of social media that dominates the young under-30 audience.People who get their news primarily from mainstream TV and cable channels "are more supportive of Israel's war effort, less likely to think Israel is committing war crimes", wroteRyan Grim, a journalist at the progressive publicationThe Intercept. But Americans who rely on social media, podcasts and YouTube are generally on the side of the Palestinians.[150]
Following theself-immolation of Aaron Bushnell, U.S. media sources were criticized for failing to mention Bushnell's reason for self-immolating — opposition to theGaza genocide.[151][152]
Axios reported tensions between White House press secretaryKarine Jean-Pierre and National Security Council spokesmanJohn Kirby.[153] Y.L. Al-Sheikh, in an editorial inThe Nation, wrote that if Biden was the public face of his administration's policies in Gaza, then Kirby, Jean-Pierre, and Matthew Miller were its "robotic enforcers."[154]
According to an analysis, major US newspapers likeThe New York Times,The Washington Post and theLos Angeles Times have demonstrated a clear bias in their coverage of the Gaza conflict, favoring Israel.The Intercept, a US-based news outlet, reported on January 9 that these leading newspapers consistently portrayed Palestinians in a negative light during Israel's attacks on Gaza.[155]
In late October 2023, theNew York Times corrected[156] its initial acceptance of Hamas's account of the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital blast in Gaza City; other mainstream news outlets remained silent or corrected their reports without admitting fault.[157] In 2024, failures to disclose a source's connection to Hamas were noted in the case of Hussein Owda, by three outlets (NYT, NBC News and Al Jazeera).[158]
An analysis conducted byThe Intercept revealed thatThe New York Times,The Washington Post and theLos Angeles Times exhibited a consistent bias against Palestinians in their coverage of Israel's war on Gaza. These prominent print media outlets hold significant sway in shaping American perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, they largely overlooked the profound consequences of Israel's siege and bombing campaign on children and journalists residing in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, these major U.S. newspapers placed disproportionate emphasis on Israeli casualties during the conflict and employed emotive language to depict the killings of Israelis, while neglecting to do the same for Palestinians.[159]
A report byThe Intercept detailed thatCNN's coverage of the war undergoes review by the Israeli military's censor.[160][c] The report indicated that terms such as "war crime" and "genocide" were not allowed to be used on-air.[162] An additional report byThe Intercept found major U.S. media outlets skewed their coverage in favor of Israelis, using the word "horrific" to describe Israeli suffering 36 times versus only 4 times for Palestinians.[163] It also found the words "child" or "children" were rarely used when discussing Palestinian minors.[164] CNN faced criticism for not airing South Africa's introductory remarks during theSouth Africa v. Israel case at theInternational Court of Justice.[165]
CNN staff accused the network of being so biased in favor of Israel that it was committing "journalistic malpractice."[166] In leaked audio from an internal meeting, hostChristine Amanpour expressed "real distress" over CNN's editorial policies regarding the war.[167] In an op-ed inAl Jazeera,American University of Beirut professorRami George Khouri stated, "Mainstream media organisations in the West, from theNew York Times and theWall Street Journal to CNN and NBC, have long helped Israel spread its propaganda and achieve its political aims... For example, they usually refer to blatant acts of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in Gaza as 'evacuations', and claim Israel is 'defending itself' against 'terror.'"[168]
In September 2024, CNN journalistsDana Bash andJake Tapper accusedU.S. RepresentativeRashida Tlaib ofantisemitism for supposedly questioning Michigan Attorney GeneralDana Nessel's ability to do her job due to her being Jewish, in response to Nessel's decision to prosecutepro-Palestinian campus protesters from theUniversity of Michigan.[169][170] Tlaib had not made such a comment about Nessel's ethnicity in an interview with theDetroit Metro Times, where she had talked about anti-Palestinian discrimination.[171][169] The false claim was repeated byJewish Insider andAnti-Defamation League CEOJonathan Greenblatt.[169] Tapper later claimed that he "misspoke", and Bash provided a "clarification" on her show.[170]
A WSJ article in early February 2024 bySteven Stalinsky calledDearborn, Michigan, the United States' "jihad capital" and was condemned as racist.[172] Police protection ramped up in Dearborn following Stalinsky's article, with U.S. PresidentJoe Biden stating that Dearborn shouldn't be blamed for "the words of a small few."[173][174] Dearborn mayorAbdullah Hammoud called Stalinsky's editorial "bigoted" and "Islamophobic."[175] CongressmemberPramila Jayapal and SenatorGary Peters both condemned Stalinsky's article.
ANew York Times article in early February 2024 byThomas Friedman compared Middle Eastern countries to parasites and insects and was condemned as racist.[172][176][177][178]The New York Times was accused of major discrepancies between its coverage of theallegation of sexual assault on 7 October and family testimony.[179] One of the article's authors,Anat Schwartz, was found to have liked posts calling to "turn Gaza into a slaughterhouse."[180]The Intercept stated that the New York Times had responded to pressures fromCAMERA and "consistently delegitimized Palestinian deaths and cultivated 'a gross imbalance' in coverage to pro-Israeli sources and voices."[181] Writing inLitHub, professorSteven Thrasher wrote that the coverage of the war byThe New York Times was "assisting the military goals of American empire".[182] In April 2024,The Intercept reported on a leaked internal memo fromThe New York Times, which told writers to avoid the terms "genocide," "ethnic cleansing," and "occupied territory" and not to use the term Palestine "except in very rare cases."[183]
A 2024Bar Ilan study of 1,398NYT articles found that 647 articles (46%) expressed empathy only towards Palestinians, while 147 articles (10.5%) expressed empathy only towards Israelis.[184] Of 276 Top News headlines in 7 months, 55% expressed empathy only toward Palestinians, and 5.8 % expressed empathy towards Israelis; 130 of these headlines criticized Israel, while only 6 headlines criticized Hamas.[184]
Yale professor Edieal Pinker examined 1,561The New York Times articles published between October 7, 2023 and June 7, 2024 that included "Israel” and “Gaza”, finding that “Israel” was mentioned three times more frequently than “Hamas".[185] By omitting mention of deaths of Hamas fighters, Pinker argued, theNYT led readers to believe Israel was simply bombing Gaza, "diminishing Hamas’s responsibility for their situation and the continuation of the war".[185]
Accusations ofdouble standards in media coverage of conflicts have emerged. Critics[who?] said thatUkraine's right to self-defense is often commended by international leaders, yet the same support is not always extended to the Palestinian resistance to Israel's occupation in theWest Bank and Gaza.[186][187]Jordan's Foreign Minister,Ayman Safadi, has similarly accused the international community of applying "double standards" when it comes toPalestinians.[188] Vidhya Krishnan opined that reporting pattern from past wars and crises by Western newsrooms is journalism of thevictor in service of supremacist colonialism.[189]
On 23 November 2023, eight UK-based journalists employed by theBBC wrote to Al Jazeera to register their concern over the double standard of the BBC's coverage of theGaza war, contrasting it with the "unflinching" reporting onRussian war crimes in Ukraine. The journalists accused the media corporation of omitting historical context and investing in humanizing Israeli victims while failing to humanize Palestinian victims, alleging that senior newsroom figures did not adequately hold Israeli officials accountable and actively interfered in reporting to minimize the coverage of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.[190] In an op-ed,Jeremy Corbyn criticized theBBC for not airing South Africa's court presentation duringSouth Africa v. Israel yet showing Israel's defense the following day.[191][192]
In November 2024, 230 media professionals, including over 100 BBC staff, signed a letter stating that BBC coverage failed its own editorial standards in its pro-Israel biases.[193] In July 2025, 111 anonymous BBC journalists, freelancers, and industry figures signed a letter expressing concern over what they described as censorship and a lack of transparency in the BBC's editorial decisions regarding its reporting on Israel and Palestine. The letter was issued shortly beforeChannel 4 airedGaza: Doctors Under Attack, a documentary originally commissioned by the BBC but later shelved over concerns it might be perceived as lacking impartiality. The signatories criticised senior management for obstructing coverage without explanation and alleged that the BBC had failed to adequately report on topics such asUK arms sales to Israel. The letter called on the BBC to uphold its commitment to impartial journalism and to improve its coverage of the conflict.[194]
In anopen letter to Australian media outlets, journalists criticized a double standard in trust given to theIDF, stating, "The Israeli government is also an actor in this conflict, with mounting evidence it is committing war crimes and a documented history of sharing misinformation. The Israeli government's version of events should never be reported verbatim without context or fact-checking."[195]
TheMedia Watch ofABC News Australia on 19 February 2024 argued thatThe Australian andThe Sydney Morning Herald were running more stories on the 7 October attack, humanising the Israeli victims between October 2023 and February 2024, while the Palestinian casualties during the conflict within the same timeframe received less news coverage despite the greater death toll and crises such as starvation.[196] Documents released from ABC News in March 2024 showed staff concerns about persistent pro-Israel bias, including "accepting 'Israeli facts and figures with no ifs or buts' while questioning Palestinian viewpoints and avoiding the word 'Palestine' itself."[197]
In an investigation byThe Guardian, it was reported thatCNN staff had criticized their network's coverage of the war, accusing it of promoting Israeli propaganda and giving more attention to Israeli suffering and the Israeli narrative of the war. One staffer claimed that this bias was systematic and institutionalized, as many journalists' stories were forced to be cleared by channel's Jerusalem bureau before publication. Staffers claimed that statements by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority were rarely reported on, while Israeli statements were taken at face value. The staff blamed CNN's newly appointed CNN directorMark Thompson for the alleged biased reporting. A CNN spokesperson denied the charges of bias.[198]
Writing inTime Magazine, writer Elena Dudum criticized the U.S. media's use ofpassive voice when discussing Palestinians in Gaza, writing, "The obfuscation of responsibility is facilitated by a structure often overlooked since grade school: grammar. At this moment, grammar has the indelible power to become a tool of the oppressor, with the passive voice the most relied-upon weapon of all."[199] In theNew York Review of Books, authorIsabella Hammad criticized western media's focus on anti-war activists' language, rather than on the "gravity of Israel’s assault on Gaza".[200]
In October 2024, a group ofCNN andBBC journalists stated their organizations had "systematic double standards" in terms of their war coverage and frequently violated journalistic principles.[201] A study byThe Nation further found a "consistent double standard" in CNN andMSNBC coverage, portraying Palestinians less sympathetically than either Israelis or Ukrainians.[202]
TheCommittee to Protect Journalists has reported that to thegrowing number of journalists killed and injured in the war, journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories have also been subject to 13 arrests, as well as "numerous assaults, threats, cyberattacks, and censorship".[203]
In October 2023, 10 journalists were arrested by the IDF, includingLama Khater, a freelance writer forMiddle East Monitor and the Palestinian news websiteFelesteen; Mohamed Bader ofal-Hadath newspaper; and the 62-year-old journalist Nawaf Al-Amer of the Sanad news agency. In November, a further three journalists were arrested, including Ameer Abo Iram of the Ramallah-based news outlet Al-Ersal, Mohamad Al-Atrash, a host of Radio Alam, and Amer Abu Arafa, a freelance reporter for theQuds News Network andShehab News Agency.[203]
In October 2024, American journalist Jeremy Loffredo was arrested by the Israeli military for reporting on where Iranian missiles had landed in Israel and charged with "aiding the enemy".[204]
Various threats have also been made towards journalists over the phone, or by Israeli soldiers and police at borders and checkpoints. In October, anRT Arabic crew was stopped by Israeli police and warned that they would risk arrest if they returned to the location. On 5 November, a team of journalists from the German broadcasterARD, including Jan-Christoph Kitzler, were stopped by Israeli soldiers to the south ofHebron and threatened with weapons. They were also questioned about whether they were Jewish, according to the German news serviceTagesschau andHaaretz, with one team member being called a traitor. Kitzler attributed the aggression to the reporting by the team onIsraeli settler violence against Palestinians, writing on X that "it's noteworthy that many of the soldiers in that area are settlers themselves, creating an environment where journalists are generally unwelcome."[203]
Media teams operation in the region have also been exposed to various kinds of cyberattack, with theJerusalem Post website going down on 9 October, withAnonymous Sudan claiming responsibility. The Palestinian Authority news agencyWafa also experienced a cyberattack on 18 October, as didAl-Jazeera English on 31 October andAl-Mamlaka TV on 3 November.[203]
Since the conflict began, the Israeli authorities have also ordered the shutting down of several media outlet, including the West Bank-based J-Media agency and the Hebron-based Dream radio station. Israel has also propose emergency regulations to halt media broadcasts that harm "national morale", and threatened to close Al-Jazeera's local offices and block the outlet from freely reporting.[203] On 30 October 30,Rolling Stone said its journalistJesse Rosenfeld had been denied press credentials by the Israeli government after having covered the Benjamin Netanyahu's administration critically.[203]
Allegations were raised in early November 2023 that the IDF had foiled a number ofcatfishing or honeypot scams on social media with the majority clustered on Instagram. Multiple accounts reportedly aligned with Iran had made contact with IDF troops and worked to gain the troops trust before asking for potentially sensitive information. The IDF did not comment on if the scams had produced any actionable intelligence for Hamas.[205]
In September 2024, theNational Writers Union released a report stating that they had documented 44 instances of retaliation against 100 journalists in North America and Europe who were perceived to be sympathetic toward Palestinians.[206]
During the war, there was an incident involving the suspension of three Muslim journalists fromMSNBC:Mehdi Hasan,Ayman Mohieddine, andAli Velshi.[207] The network's decision coincided with escalating tensions in the Gaza Strip. Hasan's show on Peacock, Mohieddine's scheduled appearances and Velshi's anchoring duties were all affected. Despite the changes, MSNBC maintained that these were coincidental and not indicative of any sidelining. The incident sparked a debate about potential religious bias, with critics[who?] suggesting that the anchors were targeted based on their faith.[208][209][210]
Antoinette Lattouf, an Australian journalist at theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation was fired after posting aHuman Rights Watch report on her social media account.[211] The firing sparked a hearing by theFair Work Commission.[212] Staff at ABC threatened to go on strike in opposition to Lattouf's firing.[213] Reporting by theSydney Morning Herald showed a group of pro-Israeli lobbyists had actively campaigned for Lattouf's removal.[214] On 20 February, ABC stated it had rejected a freedom of information request regarding complaints made by staff members.[215] On 20 March, theMedia, Entertainment and Arts Alliance called for the dismissal of ABC's Managing Director David Anderson for his role in firing Lattouf.[216]
In response to around 36 to 38 of its journalists signing the 9 November 2023 statement, "We condemn Israel's killing of journalists in Gaza and urge integrity in Western media coverage of Israel's atrocities against Palestinians",[217] theLos Angeles Times banned them from reporting on the war in Gaza for three months.[218][219] Suhauna Hussein, one of the journalists, stated, "Yes it's true we've been taken off cover[a]ge, which in effect removes a great many Muslim journalists and most [if] not all Palestinians at the LA Times from coverage". Altogether, over 600 journalists signed the statement.[218]Los Angeles Times management announced the ban in mid-November, stating that the journalists' statement violated the newspaper's ethics policy. The ban affected an ongoing project at the newspaper, the "Gaza Voices Project", in which Palestinians wrote their own obituaries for use in case they were killed, in that several journalists with linguistic, cultural and contextual knowledge were blocked from contributing. One journalist described the ban as having achilling effect.[219]
Major social media platforms such asFacebook,Instagram,YouTube, andTikTok have been accused censoring or limiting the reach of pro-Palestine voices during Israel's war. Users claim practices such as shadowbanning, where content is hidden or its reach reduced when using certain keyword or hashtags like "FreePalestine" or "IStandWithPalestine".[220] Instagram has also been accused of taking down posts mentioning Palestine – an issue thatMeta has attributed to a bug.[220] Instagram's "see translation" feature erroneously added the word "terrorist" to some Palestinian users' bios;[221][222] the issue was later fixed and Meta issued an apology.[222][223]
Some people who posted in support of Palestine or the civilians impacted by the bombing campaign in Gaza claimed that they were purposefully censored or their posts were restricted from being seen by a broader audience. Thousands of pro-Palestinian supporters claimed that Facebook and Instagram suppressed or removed posts that did not break the platforms' rules.[11] One user on Instagram reported that herInstagram Stories posts about developments in Palestine received fewer views and did not appear on her friends' accounts, her user name became unsearchable and friends were unable to interact with her posts. The user's report was one of hundreds according to social media watchdog group7amleh, the Arab Center for Social Media Advancement, who stated that social media websitesshadow banned content related to the conflict. A similar trend was seen during May 2021 where there wasa series of escalations in Palestine.[224]
In mid-October 2023, the Communications and digital ministerFahmi Fadzil confirmed that theMalaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) would meet with TikTok's parent companyByteDance following complaints from Malaysian TikTok users that content containing words like Hamas were removed by the social media company.[8][9] In October 2024,The Intercept reported that Meta's Israel & the Jewish Diaspora policy chief Jordana Cutler had flagged posts byStudents for Justice in Palestine.[225]
Meta,Facebook's parent company, suspended the PalestinianQuds News Network (QNN), the largest Palestinian news page on its platform. QNN, which had both Arabic and English news pages and 10 million followers, reported on the conflict betweenIsrael and theGaza Strip. The network criticized the suspension as a violation of freedom of opinion andexpression and claimed it was in alignment with theIsraeli government.[226][227]
On 13 October, Meta restricted access to the Instagram account of photojournalist and influencerMotaz Azaiza after he shared footage of the aftermath of an Israeli bombardment that killed 15 of his family members. Access was restored on 14 October.[228]
On 25 October 2023,Meta'sInstagram suspended "Eye on Palestine"! a pro-Palestinian Instagram account that was a key source of news onGaza which documented daily Israeli abuses and violations in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip during the Israeli aggression. This led to huge anger and a backlash from activists and media personnel online.[229] The page resumed activities on 27 October after the team discussed the issues with Meta.[230]
On October 15, 2023, Israel's Communications ministerShlomo Karhi said he was seeking the closure of Al Jazeera's bureau in Israel, adding at the time that the proposal was being analysed by Israeli security officials and legal experts.[231] TheCommittee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the proposed shutdown, saying, "plurality of media voices is essential in order to hold power to account, especially in times of war."[232]
Israel's government, however, left Al Jazeera out of a decision about emergency media regulations set for the conflict that included the shutdown of Lebanese channelAl Mayadeen and the seizure of its equipment in November 2023. Then-Israeli Foreign ministerEli Cohen said he was still in favor of a crackdown against Al Jazeera.[233]
On April 1, 2024,Israel's parliament passed a bill authorizing the Prime Minister of Israel to shut down foreign channels who were considered threats to national security, including Al Jazeera. White House spokespersonKarine Jean-Pierre said the bill was "concerning."[234] Al Jazeera released a statement saying, "This latest measure comes as part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera".[235]Reporters Without Borders stated, "Israel is using every possible method to try to silence Al Jazeera for its coverage of the reality of the fate of Palestinians".[236] The chair of theCommittee to Protect Journalists stated, "It’s another example of the tightening of the free press and the stranglehold the Israeli government would like to exercise. It’s an incredibly worrying move by the government."[237] In a statement,PEN America said, "The Israeli government must reverse this decision immediately, stop using sweeping laws to clamp down on the media".[238]
On May 5, 2024, Israel's Prime Minister cabinet voted unanimously to permanently shut Al Jazeera's office in the country[239] and authorized the seizure of its equipment.[240] On the same day, all Al Jazeera broadcasts (in English and in Arabic) went off air in Israel.[241] In response to the news, the Foreign Press Association stated Israel had joined "a dubious club of authoritarian governments" by banning the network.[242] The deputy general secretary of theInternational Federation of Journalists stated, "Closing down media, closing down television stations is a sort of thing that despots do".[243] The UN Secretary-General spokespersonStéphane Dujarric condemned the network's closure.[244][245] On 23 May, Israeli forces opened fire at an Al Jazeera crew inJenin.[246] In July 2024, an Israeli court extended the Al Jazeera ban for another month.[247]
In September 2024, the Israeli military raided Al Jazeera's office in the occupied West Bank, shutting it down.[248] Journalists present during the raid stated the Israeli military destroyed their equipment and pointed weapons at them if they tried to move.[249][250] The Foreign Press Association stated it was "deeply troubled" by the raid, saying, "Restricting foreign reporters and closing news channels signals a shift away from democratic values".[251] The director of theInternational Federation of Journalists stated, "This is the worst possible behaviour from a country that claims to be a defender of free speech. It’s clear evidence of a determined policy to quell any kind of criticism."[252] The Committee to Protect Journalists stated, "Israel’s efforts to censor Al Jazeera severely undermine the public’s right to information on a war that has upended so many lives in the region".[253]
In May 2024, Israeli authorities raided the office of American news agencyAssociated Press, and verbally ordered it to remove a live news video showing Gaza which the Associated Press refused to do.[254]
Following such refusal, Israel conficasted a camera and a broadcasting equipment from Associated Press citing the agency allegedly violated the new foreign media law for selling images to Al Jazeera, who was already banned under said law.[254]
U.S. officials reached out to Israeli counterparts on May 21 to express concern over the seizure, which was hours later reversed, with the equipment being returned to the Associated Press.[255][256]
Misinformation and propaganda have presented a notable problem during the conflict. False information and deceptive content have circulated extensively, especially in countries such asIndonesia.[257] This has raised worries[by whom?] about the possibility of misinformation escalating tensions and playing a role in fueling the conflict.[5][258] Media reporters relied onOSINT information for their coverage of the war, contributing to the spread of misinformation.[259]
Mainstream media extensively reported on the conflict, emphasizing the human toll and challenges faced by journalists and news platforms.[260] However, distinguishing fact from fiction proved difficult due to the conflict's intricacies.[261]
During the Gaza war, Israel has released several pieces of incorrect or disputed information, leading to questions about its credibility.[262] On claims linking Palestinian militants to sexual assaults on Oct 7,The Times has remarked that investigations have been hampered by "false and misleading information" spread by "senior [Israeli] political figures and government-linked civil activists".[263] A UN report on these allegations has stated that Israeli authorities have been unable to produce the evidence politicians said existed.[263]
Writing foropenDemocracy, British academicPaul Rogers stated, "Israel must maintain the pretence of an orderly war with few civilians killed. Netanyahu's government is lying, but it would be naive to expect otherwise. Lying is what many powerful states routinely do, particularly in wartime."[264] InThe Intercept, investigative journalistJeremy Scahill wrote, "At the center of Israel's information warfare campaign is a tactical mission to dehumanize Palestinians and to flood the public discourse with a stream of false, unsubstantiated, and unverifiable allegations."[265]
Some organizations, including the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate and staff atCNN, have criticized Western media outlets for repeating "Israeli military propaganda" without proper journalistic interrogation.[266][267] In March 2024, journalistMehdi Hasan announced he was starting a series debunkingIsraeli misinformation used during the war, stating, "Israeli officials have told so many lies since October 7 with so little pushback from the media that it’s hard to keep up."[268]
A group of experts and journalists said to Al Jazeera that the systemic "bias in favor of Israel" is "irreparably damaging" the credibility of news agencies considered "mainstream" in the eyes of Arabs and others.[269]
JournalistJanine Zacharia stated in relation to the war that online social media encourage the spread of "hot takes" and make the rapid dissemination of false information easy. She argued in favour of mainstream media, stating that "legitimate credible fact-based news organization[s]" differ from fake news producers in that the "legitimate" media admit their errors. Zacharia said that longer articles about the war "must mention" the 2005Israeli disengagement from Gaza, the2006 Palestinian legislative election won by Hamas, and the 2006–2007Fatah–Hamas conflict.[270]
In February 2024,Anat Schwartz, one of the authors of aNew York Times article aboutalleged sexual violence on 7 October, was found to haveliked incendiary posts on social media calling to turn Gaza into a "slaughterhouse".[271] This came after heavy criticism about the quality of the article's reporting.[272][273] The publication of the article was followed by internal worries about the strength of its reporting.[273][274] As anIntercept report criticizing the article stated that these worries caused an episode ofThe Daily podcast about the report to be set aside, which the management treated as anewsroom leak, an internal investigation into the leak began, lasting multiple weeks. This caused tensions with theNew York Times Guild (the paper's union, which is represented byNewsGuild-CWA) and dissention within the organization.[275][276][277] The union alleged that the investigators have been especially interested in employees of Middle Eastern or North African ethnic origin—and that they have been poring over the membership and communications of anaffinity group of these employees—characterizing this as "racially motivated" activity; NYT denied this.[276] Summarizing the controversy,Al Jazeera stated that the claims in "Screams Without Words" "have since been revealed to be unsubstantiated, demonstrating theTimes' pro-Israeli/anti-Palestinian bias and leaving the paper's newsroom riven by dissent."[278]
On January 29,The Wall Street Journal reported the key claims that the dossier made.Palestinian-Canadian rights lawyerDiana Buttu opined that the "problem with these types of allegations is that they adopt the Israeli narrative without questioning or second-guessing it."[279] Al-Jazeera further characterized the article as a "journalistic failure", noting that the authors did not fact check Israeli claims that one in 10 of UNRWA's staff members had "links to (Hamas or other) militants" or even specify what "links" meant.[279]
In commentary forThe Intercept,Jeremy Scahill criticized the article as it:[280]
On 8 November,Honest Reporting, a pro-Israel media watchdog group, reported that several Gaza-based journalists, including those working withAP andReuters, "appeared to have been embedded with Hamas" during the2023 Hamas attack on Israel in violation ofjournalism ethics. Israeli government officials subsequently said that the journalists had prior knowledge of the attack.[d] CNN and AP ended their relationship with one of these photographers,Hassan Eslaiah.[283][284][285] Within a week, Honest Reporting said that that Reuters, the Associated Press, CNN, andThe New York Times had no prior knowledge of the attacks.[282] Reuters noted that it was "deeply concerned about the irresponsibility of Honest Reporting in publishing such damaging accusations."[282]
During a Q&A session on November 21, 2023, Swedish prime ministerUlf Kristersson said, inSwedish, "Israel has the right tofolk" before interrupting himself and saying "to defense within the framework offolkrätten [international law]".[286][287] Accusations that he had intended to use the wordfolkmord (genocide) circulated online. The incident was covered by outlets such asTRT World andRT DE. Palestinian news agencyWafa reported that Kristersson "says Israel has the right to commit genocide before correcting himself to say the right to self-defense", while other media such as Pakistani newspaperDawn andMiddle East Eye used more cautious language.[286]
Mattias Heldner, head of the linguistics department atStockholm University, pointed out that the sentence structure of Kristersson's speech led up to the words "to defense" rather than "genocide", noting that he had not said "to commit" prior to saying the disputed word.[286]
Survivors and victim relatives of theNova music festival massacre filed a lawsuit in Florida againstAssociated Press, alleging four freelance photojournalists were embedded with militants who overran southern communities on October 7.[288] The Associated Press was ordered by a judge to release redacted documents related to the case to the public.[289]
The conflict has also had a devastating impact on journalists covering it, with a number of them being killed or sustaining injuries while reporting in Gaza.[260][290] Nearly 75% of journalists killed worldwide in 2023 were Palestinian reporters who died in Israeli attacks in Gaza.[291]
Critics of Israel's actions have noticed not only being censored or shadow banned on big tech platforms, but also national main stream media in Finland where comment sections are often swamped with fanatic pro-Israel comments.
Two meters upwards, it'd hit us: News 13 crew under Hezbollah's fire
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Interviewed byAl-Jazeera English in an episode of the current affairs programmeThe Listening Post discussing the article, in the chapter of the video labelledWall Street Journal
Honest Reporting CEO Hoffman noted that he had been shocked by Likud MK Danon's comments, and said: There are clearly things in the prime minister's office statement that are not based on fact. We did not say anything firmly.
