Debunking Lies About The Israel-Hamas War
In the wake of the destructive Israel-Hamas war, political figures and grifters have been spreading disinformation. Here are some of the biggest false narratives and viral lies.
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In moments of crisis, emotions are high. Our ability to assess information objectively is eroded. Opportunists recognize this and mislead people looking for accurate real-time information. They weaponize false narratives in an effort to exploit crises for political and financial gain. That’s exactly what we’re seeing with the Israel-Hamas war.
At about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, launched a barrage of rockets targeting Israel. The missiles hit as north as the Tel Aviv airport. Hamas simultaneously invaded the southern Israeli-Gaza border and went house to house, slaughtering civilians. There was an all-night Peace Concert near the Gaza border that was also sieged. Concert-goers fled to the woods. At least 260 innocent people were killed at that concert alone.
Israel was caught completely off guard by this attack in a stunning intelligence failure. But shortly after it began, Israel responded in kind, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making a declaration of war. Israel launched retaliatory strikes in Gaza, claiming to target military targets, but civilians were among the casualties. The targets included apartment buildings and mosques. On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, declaring:
“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly."
As of the time of this post, Over 1,200 people have been killed on both sides of this war, at least 700 Israelis, 550 Palestinians, and 9 U.S. nationals - including children. Over 2,500 have been wounded. Hamas militants have kidnapped over 100 Israeli hostages and are now threatening to kill them. All of this loss of innocent life is devastating.
Amid this chaos, it’s important to take some time to understand the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If you want to increase your understanding, I highly recommend reading “Why did Hamas invade Israel?” by Zack Beauchamp in Vox. It’s an excellent analysis piece that breaks down the history of the occupation, the motivations of Hamas, and potential routes to a solution. It’s a nuanced piece on an issue often rampant with unnuanced discourse.
In this article, though, I’ll be looking at the false narratives proliferating on social media and cable news. On Twitter/X especially, we saw disinformation spread by verified users who are eligible for Twitter’s monetization program. This is the disinformation industrial complex at its worst.
Whether it’s fake footage literally taken from a video game or false talking points from Republican lawmakers, we’ve seen it all this past weekend. Let’s take a look at notable disinformation and misinformation being spread about this war.
America Did Not Fund The Hamas Attack
You may have seen this Republican talking point being repeated endlessly on social media and news shows. The current stance of Republican candidates and lawmakers is that American taxpayer dollars were used to fund Hamas. The claims have been pushed by just about everyone you could name, from Donald Trump to Tim Scott. Noah Berlatsky covered this well in Public Notice. These claims are totally false.
This lie derives from a recent hostage negotiation in which the United States agreed to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian funds, which it had garnered from oil sales, in exchange for five US hostages. The money was released from a South Korean bank to a Qatari bank and is still being held there. Iran is a known backer of Hamas, so Republicans exploited this fact to try and make claims that had no basis in reality.
Fox News National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin pushed back on these lies:
“The $6 billion is still currently held in a Qatari bank account with U.S. Treasury oversight. The money came from Iranian oil sales to South Korea and did not include U.S. Taxpayer dollars.”
White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson further clarified in a post on X:
“Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people. These funds have absolutely nothing to do with the horrific attacks today and this is not the time to spread disinformation.”
On Sunday, NBC Anchor Kristen Welker challenged 2024 candidate Nikki Haley on this claim on Meet The Press, asking Haley if it’s irresponsible for her 2024 rivals to make this baseless claim. Haley defended the claim. Walker told her: “There’s just no proof of that yet.”
This was the most coordinated and persistent lie that was told as the attack unfolded. Republicans did not hesitate to exploit this tragic situation to spread disinformation that they felt could help them politically.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel made a revelatory statement on Saturday highlighting how Republicans view this moment, stating that “this is a great opportunity" for Republican candidates.
An Avalanche Of Viral Lies
Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter last year, content moderation has been significantly eroded. Disinformation and misinformation have proliferated at whirlwind speeds. With the new feature enabling any user to purchase a verified badge, it can be incredibly difficult for an average person to tell who is a credible source and who isn’t. The Israel-Hamas war presents a real test for the new Twitter (now X), and it’s failing terribly.
BBC Journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh, an expert in disinformation and conspiracy theories, described the severity of the situation in a post on Sunday:
I've been fact-checking on Twitter for years, and there's always plenty of misinformation during major events. But the deluge of false posts in the last two days, many boosted via Twitter Blue, is something else. Neither fact-checkers nor Community Notes can keep up with this.
I highly recommend checking out Shayan’s posts. He’s been doing daily threads documenting this viral disinformation about the Israel-Hamas war.
Here are some of the most viral lies in the past few days. I won’t be screenshotting the posts because I don’t want to give these grifters the clout they’re desperately searching for. You can click in to see them if you’d like.
Biden Did Not Release $8 Billion In Aid To Israel
Over the weekend, a fake White House Press release went viral on social media and rose in Google search results. The claim was that the Biden Administration had released $8 Billion in aid to Israel. That is not true.
Israel Did Not Authorize A Tactical Nuclear Strike on Gaza
One Twitter blue verified user shared a video of an explosion and claimed that Israel had authorized a tactical nuclear strike on the Gaza Strip. That is, of course, not true.
Video Of Hamas Militant Shooting Down Israeli Helicopter Is Fake
A video on X that claimed to show a Hamas militant shooting down an Israeli helicopter was actually from a video game called Arma 3. The video still has not been taken down and has 531,000 views. There is now, at least, a community note on the video indicating it is from that video game.
Israeli Generals Were Not Captured By Hamas
A video posted on X claimed that Hamas had captured Israeli generals. In reality, it showed “the arrest of Karabakh separatist leaders by Azerbaijan's security service.” The video has been viewed 1.7 million times and still has not been taken down. It does have a community note fact-checking it now, but the damage has already been done.
There Was No Massive Pro-Palestine March In Chicago Today
A video posted on X claiming to be from a pro-Palestine march in Chicago today is actually from a pro-Palestine Chicago March in 2021. The video has received 194,000 views so far, with commenters in the replies genuinely believing it’s from today.
Resurfacing Of Old Videos
One common disinformation tactic is to surface old videos from other conflicts, sometimes in entirely different countries. We’ve seen this repeatedly happen. Video from past airstrikes in Gaza was reused, as well as old footage from Israel. There has also been footage from Syria in 2020 claiming to be from Gaza in 2023.
Be Vigilant
These are hard times in human history. People who go out of their way to spread lies make them even harder. When reading about the Israel-Hamas war, make sure to assess the source. Check if you recognize them and analyze their track record. In moments like these, journalists on the ground and credible legacy media organizations with a history of getting these stories right are truly the best sources of information.
Stay safe and stay smart, everyone. My heart goes out to everyone impacted by this brutality.