IDF admits it made a ‘mistake’ in targeting civilians to boost support for its 2021 campaign in Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces illegally targeted the Israeli population with a psychological operation on social media to convince citizens that its airstrikes were “take a tollon Gaza during the 2021 Guardians of the Walls military operation, revealed a Haaretz investigation published on Wednesday.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit posted videos and images of Israeli airstrikes against Gaza using the hashtag #GazaRegrets, using dozens of fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and even working with popular Israeli influencers in order to conceal the military origin of astroturfing. campaign. The campaign was launched days after the start of the 2021 military operation, when the Israeli military grew concerned Israelis were more impressed by viral images of Hamas rockets hitting Israel than by actions of their own army, according to Haaretz.
The IDF admitted to the outlet that it worked with influencers to spread footage of its airstrikes on Gaza and even admitted to setting up “a limited number of fake accounts ” For this purpose, ” to maximize audience reach— although the content received few likes or reposts.
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However, he dismissed the astroturf campaign as a brief, abnormal ” errorinsisting that the robots had only been operational for 24 hours, with no similar episodes in the past two years.
Israel’s military intelligence division is known to use similar manipulation tactics to sway popular opinion in foreign countries. However, it is legally prohibited to target the domestic population with psychological warfare, and this prohibition is so strict that the IDF was prohibited from deploying its tools domestically, even at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. while some government officials wanted them for contact tracing.
The head of the IDF Spokesman’s Unit, Hidai Zilberman, insisted that the division’s role is ” report nothing but the truth to the publicand that he would never stoop to psychological warfare since he was caught during the 2021 operation in Gaza deliberately spreading fake news through the foreign press.
However, Haaretz recently discovered that the unit not only routinely collaborates with local influencers to push Israeli public opinion, but even refers journalists to a Telegram channel run by a creator the IDF hired as a consultant to “ psychological warfare.”
Faced with the totality of their investigation, a senior defense official described the situation in Haaretz as “outrageous… something like this shouldn’t have happened.”
