Israel launches international digital campaign to counter anti-Israel narratives amid Gaza war

Israel has invested $51.8 million in a digital social media campaign that is designed to counter widespread anti-Israel narratives and falsehoods amid the ongoing war against the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.

The Israeli government’s six month media campaign started in June at the time of the Jewish state's Operation Rising Lion offensive against Iran and is scheduled to run until the end of 2025. Jerusalem has invested $27M in Google campaigns, $18M in YouTube content, $3m in 𝕏 and $4.2M in Teads. 

The Israeli Government Advertising Agency (GAA) explained that the media campaign was greenlighted due to “operational and urgent needs” to reach large international audiences. The social media outlets were reportedly picked based on existing infrastructure and experience in running large-scale information campaigns. 

The Israeli media campaign is for instance countering the widespread “starvation in Gaza” claims by featuring explanatory videos from the Israeli Foreign Ministry and from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The content is designed for an international audience and aims to provide facts about Israel and the conflict that are largely ignored or downplayed by mainstream global media outlets. 

The Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem has so far refrained from commenting on the business contracts with the large social media platforms. The outcome of the media information campaign is still unclear.

However, the Israeli social media campaign is reportedly one of the largest of its kind and is driven by the notion that the Jewish state is currently losing the information and perception war concerning the war with Hamas in Gaza. 

In late August, Israel eliminated the infamous Hamas spokesman Hudayfa al-Kahlout, known worldwide under his nom de guerre Abu Obeida. Hamas’ top propaganda official, who had previously survived several Israeli assassination attempts, was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in Gaza City’s once upscale Rimal neighborhood. 

Obeida played a central role in Hamas’ successful global propaganda war against the Jewish state. For instance, Israeli officials believe that it was Obeida who orchestrated the “starvation in Gaza” campaign with the purpose of increasing global pressure on Israel to stop its military offensive against the remains of the Hamas regime’s political and military power in Gaza. 

However, despite the elimination of Obeida, Hamas’ propaganda war continues. Israeli Radio’s military correspondent Doron Kadosh recently estimated that Obeida led a Hamas unit consisting of 1,500 operatives who were tasked to deal only with disinformation and propaganda campaigns. The size of this unit reveals the importance that Hamas attributes to the information front. 

Despite its vastly larger resources, the Israeli military, however, has so far invested very limited resources in the information arena. The IDF currently only employs 40 soldiers who are dealing with filming and documentation tasks. 

“Of course, these are fundamentally different entities – but the contrast highlights just how massively Hamas has invested in propaganda, documentation, dissemination, and psychological influence. It’s not a side effort – it’s a strategic priority for the organization,” Kadosh assessed.