Gaza’s two wars: fighting both the bombs and the narrativehttps://en.majalla.com/node/325856/culture-social-affairs/gaza%E2%80%99s-two-wars-fighting-both-bombs-and-narrative
Gaza’s two wars: fighting both the bombs and the narrative
A lot of thought and effort has gone into Israel’s media defence and a clear strategy has been hard at work since October 2023, changing the way we see the conflict. Is it now beginning to falter?
Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
A mural in Ireland's capital, Dublin, showing support for Palestinians in Gaza on 30 May 2025.
Gaza’s two wars: fighting both the bombs and the narrative
The American network ABC News recently reported how Palestinian doctor Alaa Al-Najjar lost nine of her children in an Israeli airstrike on her home while she was working, with her last remaining child and husband left in critical condition. The inclusion of Israeli violations in Gaza in the news list of a major US media news outlet was a rarity.
The story and its framing were immediately seized upon by both real and fabricated commentators on the network’s X (formerly Twitter) account, who dismissed the story as “fake news” because it cited the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is often equated with Hamas.
There is no rigorous verification process involved in this judgement of fakery. Rather, it appeared as an automatic, reactive mechanism, both defensive and offensive, rooted in a set of entrenched biases that distil into a stark binary: are you “with” Israel, or “against” it? The underlying assumption is that if you are “with” Israel, then you are also “with” its war on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian land.
This binary logic leads to instant responses by those who often do not read, see, or listen to the full report, far less consult alternative news sources or seek to verify the claims they then make. Every story that sheds light on Israeli actions in Gaza or the West Bank is swiftly categorised in similar terms.
Everyone is Hamas
The sheer scale of horror captured in the daily images emerging from Gaza is rendered irrelevant. It was fake news before it was even posted, Hamas propaganda before the bomb even fell, antisemitism before anyone was killed.
Cue the same kind of response to a separate Sky News post on X that featured a photo of a child lying on a bed, emaciated from starvation, his small body skin and bone following Israel’s refusal to allow in humanitarian aid.
“How can we believe this child is starving while his mother in the photo looks healthy?” one commenter wrote. “Hamas is marketing it as famine.” Another wrote: “If the report is true, it’s because Hamas insists on using civilians as human shields.” Networks that post images like this are accused of antisemitism (as Sky News was).
A set of entrenched biases distil into a stark binary: are you 'with' Israel (and so support its war in Gaza) or are you 'against' it?
These are not isolated reactions. Rather, this is the media strategy of Israel and its supporters and has been from the onset of the conflict. Everyone killed is either a Hamas operative or killed because Hamas militants deliberately embedded themselves among them.
At its most extreme, the following is emblematic: "There are no civilians in Gaza as long as they permit Hamas to control the territory and fail to exert sufficient pressure for the release of Israeli hostages." Who said this? Republican Congressman Randy Fine, speaking to Fox News (he also proposed bombing Gaza with a nuclear weapon).
No genocide, only war
This media strategy is routinely activated in response to reports, photographs, or videos documenting atrocities, and are often accompanied by references to 7 October 2023. Even when Israeli outlets like Ha'aretz publish reports on such violations, the default response is to dismiss them as having succumbed to Hamas-driven misinformation.
A mourner reacts during the funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on 1 June 2025.
The aim is to deny any suggestion that genocide or war crimes are being perpetrated in Gaza by what is supposed to be "the most moral army in the world." In an interview with an Arab media outlet, former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton encapsulated this by saying Israeli forces were conducting operations in Gaza in an "ideal manner".
The dominant Israeli narrative is that there are no civilian casualties among Palestinians. There is no genocide, only a war, a conflict between two Israel and Hamas. Any information emerging from within Gaza—whether reports, testimonies, photos or videos—comes from one or the other, meaning it is automatically suspicion.
Israel has systematically targeted journalists linked directly or indirectly to Arab and Palestinian media outlets, as well as those working independently. The justification is pre-scripted: they are "affiliated with Hamas". Again, if these journalists are not "with" Israel, then they must be "against" Israel.
According to the narrative, all reporting from Gaza—even by independent journalists—should be viewed with suspicion and distrust. Hence why, when the Israeli army conducts rare internal investigations into alleged violations, it relies solely on Israeli testimonies.
Even if Israel acknowledges that a "mistake" occurred, it is always within a framework that portrays soldiers as responding to perceived threats from Hamas fighters. Within this narrative, such acts are not deemed crimes or violations, but rather unfortunate misjudgements made under duress.
Walking through flames
With growing exasperation, Palestinian and Arab commentators ask how the world cannot see what is truly happening in Gaza. It is a question that echoes almost daily.
It was asked yet again after harrowing footage and images emerged of five-year-old Palestinian girl Warda Al-Sheikh Khalil walking through flames after an Israeli airstrike against the Fahmi Al-Jarjawi School. The attack killed 23 civilians, including Warda's mother and siblings, but was widely unreported by mainstream global media. It was even overlooked by "official" Arab media.
To acknowledge the horror captured in such images would compel some form of response, protest, outrage, or condemnation. Ignoring them suggests either that the events did not happen, or that their significance is not worthy of recognition.
A rescuer stands on the rubble of the al-Bursh family home, after it was targeted in an Israeli strike in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on 2 June 2025.
Palestinians point to other global contexts, such as Ukraine, highlighting the scale of Western indignation expressed over each civilian casualty. Further back, they remember the Vietnam War, iconic photos of children and the elderly quickly etched into the global conscience.
But pointing out double standards rarely effects change, because they seldom spark the sort of thunderous global outcry capable of exerting real pressure to end the crimes committed under Israeli occupation.
Israel's media shield
The undeniable truth is that Israel operates under an unprecedented political, diplomatic, and media shield, employing a consistent narrative of denial, one capable of withstanding visual evidence, first-hand testimonies (even from victims), statistical data, and widespread international protests.
Every challenge is met with a rebuttal, every damning revelation is countered with denial, and every potential international condemnation is drowned out by a chorus of support, declarations, and strategic commentary.
Israel's narrative of denial can withstand visual evidence, first-hand testimonies (even from victims), statistical data, and widespread international protests
In this context, Gaza is not just a testing ground for weapons and AI technology; it is also a proving ground for the construction of dominant media narratives, with big social media companies suppressing and obscuring the Palestinian perspective, while amplifying and promoting the Israeli one.
Israel knows that wars are waged on multiple, concurrent fronts: military, diplomatic, and perhaps most crucially, media. One wonders what the scale of investment Israel and its allies have directed towards winning the latter.
A contested contest
In May, millions worldwide watched the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, the largest musical competition in Europe, with Israel a participant. The Israeli entry was ranked 14th after the judges' scores, but when the public voting results were announced, Israel suddenly topped the leaderboard.
It sent shockwaves through European audiences and beyond. Thousands of people in the hall could not hide their astonishment, nor could the TV presenters. Broadcasters in Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Iceland and Finland all later raised concerns or questions about the public vote, with some requesting an audit.
The joyous pageantry and atmosphere of Eurovision contrasted with scenes from Gaza, where bloodshed and destruction are the order of the day, yet the protests over the contest's public vote were waved away, as are protests over Israel's conduct of its war, with accusations of "antisemitism" or "Hamas sympathies" never far away.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently declared that the slogan "Free Palestine" is a "Nazi slogan". Having spent decades accusing critics of evoking the horrors of the Holocaust for political gain, he is now doing so himself and having spent decades trying to equate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, he is now suggesting that it is "antisemitic" to support the freedom of Palestine.
Fans hold a giant banner reading "Stop genocide in Gaza" during the UEFA Champions League final football match in Germany on 31 May 2025.
This marks the culmination of a denialist narrative that seeks to distort the nature of protests against the war in Gaza, casting them not as expressions of opposition to violence but as attacks on Jewish identity and Israel's right to exist. It equates Israel's right to self-defence with an unrestricted right to wage war however it chooses, free from criticism.
Calling it what it is
Despite the huge efforts to cement the Israeli narrative, however, cracks are appearing. A change in tone is now audible from several European governments, most notably Israel's allies from the outset, such as Germany and Sweden.
At the end of May, 300 French intellectuals, including Nobel laureates Annie Ernaux and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, issued a joint statement titled We Must Call It Genocide. Soon after, 380 British and Irish writers demanded "an end to the collective silence in the face of horror," describing Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide".
These interventions all ask the most fundamental of questions when it comes to Gaza: is this war, or is it a litany of war crimes? Is it a military confrontation between the Israeli army and Hamas, or is it an Israeli-led genocide aimed at erasing Hamas, the Palestinian cause, and the very concept of a Palestinian state? Answers on a postcard.
