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Misinformation and disinformation involving the distribution of false, inaccurate, or otherwise misleading information have been a prominent and ubiquitous feature of the Gaza war. Much of the content has been viral in nature, spreading online with tens of millions of posts in circulation on social media. A variety of sources, including American, British, and German government officials as well as Israeli and pro-Israeli media outlets, and social media influencers, mainly across Europe, the UK, and the US, have contributed to the spread of these inaccuracies and falsehoods.
During the "conflict," the Israeli war belligerent, mainly by means of its unit 8200 and Israeli cyber companies, has deployed artificial intelligence (AI) tools and bot farms to spread disinformation and graphic, emotionally charged, and false propaganda to dehumanize Palestinians, sow division among supporters of Palestine, and exert pressure on politicians to support Israel's actions. 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."
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 to officials and documents reviewed by the New York Times.
The campaign was started after the October 7 attack, and remained active on X (formerly Twitter) at the time of the 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, including Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from New York, and Raphael Warnock, a 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. In November 2024, a report by a United Nations (UN) committee noted that Western social media companies disproportionately removed content showing solidarity with the Palestinian people relative to content promoting violence against Palestinians.
On December 26, 2023, Israelis said they would no longer grant automatic visas to UN employees, accusing the United Nations of being “complicit partners in Hamas's tactics.” However, the Israelis have been viewing the United Nations as a threat long before there was an "October 7th."
The Israelis took the measure to prevent the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva from investigating claims that civilian female internees, not hostages, were raped by Hamas. They also forbade Israeli doctors from speaking with UN investigators, while the Israeli police claimed that they could find no victims or witnesses of rape.
The Israeli army has banned the entry of international journalists to Gaza since October 2023. The measure was taken to protect itself from scrutiny and accountability.
On June 6, 2024, UNRWA called on the war belligerent to allow international journalists to report from Gaza. It said that the measure is unprecedented in any other conflict in modern history. It is a ban on the truth and facts, and a perfect recipe to fuel disinformation. On August 21, 2025, Netanyahu said in a video address: "We must do something about social media algorithms."
Based on these Israeli actions, we treat all Israeli and pro-Israeli information as at least distorted, but a lot of it is disinformation
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