How Hamas Controls the Media

Greg Bouwer
IINZ

In the digital age, wars are no longer fought solely on land, sea, or air. They are fought through headlines, hashtags, and heartstrings. The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has underscored a stark reality: the media is not just a chronicler of war – it is a participant. In this conflict, where perception often outweighs truth, the battlefield extends into the living rooms and social media feeds of millions around the world.

Hamas, recognised as a terrorist organisation by New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the European Union, and others, has mastered the art of information warfare. Through a combination of staged content, emotional manipulation, and the strategic use of civilian suffering, Hamas has developed what can only be described as a propaganda-industrial complex – a well-oiled machine designed to shift public opinion, pressure Israel diplomatically, and erode the moral clarity of liberal democracies.

At the centre of this strategy is a cynical exploitation of the international media, which – willingly or not – has become Hamas’s most effective weapon.

Hamas’s Propaganda Machine: Staged Suffering as Strategy

Hamas’s media playbook is both brazen and brutally effective. It centres around a simple but devastating formula: provoke conflict, embed military assets within civilian populations, then broadcast the human toll. This method not only ensures international condemnation of Israel but also shields Hamas from accountability for its own war crimes.

Key elements of this strategy include:

1. Weaponising Civilians

Hamas routinely positions rocket launchers, weapons caches, and command centres in or near schools, hospitals, mosques, residential buildings, and even UN facilities. This violates international humanitarian law, specifically the principle of distinction and prohibition on using human shields.

Yet, when Israel targets these sites – after issuing warnings, evacuations, and taken extensive measures to mitigate harm – the resulting destruction is recorded and disseminated with no mention of Hamas’s provocation or the military nature of the target.

2. Staging and Manipulation (“Pallywood”)

Numerous instances have been documented of Palestinians staging injuries, funerals, or airstrike aftermaths for media consumption. Bodies are moved for dramatic effect; children are coached for interviews; funerals are held for individuals who later appear alive. This phenomenon, colloquially referred to as “Pallywood”, has been observed in every major Gaza conflict since the early 2000s, and yet many international journalists still fail to apply the same skepticism they would in any other conflict zone.

3. Controlling the Narrative

Hamas enforces strict control over local and foreign journalists operating in Gaza. Those who report critically risk expulsion, imprisonment, or worse. As a result, the ‘on-the-ground’ coverage is overwhelmingly one-sided, filtered through Hamas’s lens. During the October 2023 war, foreign journalists confirmed they were not permitted to film Hamas fighters or weapons, and some later admitted they had withheld footage showing Hamas firing rockets from hospitals or civilian homes.

4. Casualty Manipulation

The so-called “Gaza Health Ministry” – controlled entirely by Hamas – is the primary source for casualty figures cited in international media. These figures are almost never independently verified. In past conflicts, names of duplicate individuals, non-combatants listed as children despite being in their 20s, and even fabricated victims have appeared on official lists. Yet these statistics are routinely presented as fact by organisations such as the BBC, AP, and Reuters.

The Global Media as an Amplifier

Modern news cycles prize immediacy and emotion over verification and context. This environment is tailormade for Hamas, which understands that the first narrative to go viral is the one that sticks.

Unverified Headlines, Undeniable Damage

When a rocket hits a building or a child is injured, images flood social media within minutes. News outlets, competing for clicks and engagement, often publish unverified headlines based solely on Hamas-provided figures or anonymous reports. When the truth emerges – as it did after the al-Ahli Hospital explosion in October 2023, which was initially blamed on Israel but later shown to be caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket – the correction barely registers. The lie has already circled the globe.

Social media platforms such as X, Instagram, and TikTok have become primary battlegrounds for Hamas propaganda. AI-generated images, emotional reels, and videos of wounded civilians are algorithmically boosted, spreading to millions in hours. Many are misattributed, outdated, or outright fabrications. Once again, Hamas’s aim is not accuracy – it is impact.

Israel’s Ethical Dilemma: Fighting With a Moral Handicap

Israel faces a uniquely difficult challenge: how to defend itself against a terrorist group embedded in civilian infrastructure while maintaining international legal and moral standards – and doing so under the scrutiny of a hostile media environment.

Extraordinary Precautions

The IDF uses a range of tools to minimise civilian harm: drone surveillance, roof-knocking (firing a small, non-lethal munition to warn civilians), phone calls and text messages urging evacuation, and delaying strikes to allow civilians to flee. No other military in the world issues such detailed warnings to its enemies.

And yet, Israel is regularly accused of ‘indiscriminate bombing’ by activists, journalists, and even UN officials – many of whom uncritically accept Hamas casualty figures and ignore evidence of Hamas using civilian infrastructure.

Punished for Restraint

In this warped reality, the side that follows international law is blamed for outcomes caused by the side that violates it. The more Hamas embeds in civilian areas, the more Israel is blamed for civilian casualties – even when the IDF goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid them. This is not just unjust: it creates perverse incentives for terrorist groups to continue using civilians as shields.

A Media Failing With Real Consequences

The international media is not merely failing to tell the full story – it is actively enabling Hamas’s strategy. By treating Hamas-controlled sources as legitimate, prioritising sensationalism over substance, and ignoring the broader context of the conflict, journalists have abandoned their role as critical truth-seekers.

This failure has serious consequences:

It emboldens terrorist tactics by rewarding civilian exploitation.
It distorts international diplomacy, resulting in one-sided condemnations and misplaced sanctions.
It inflames global antisemitism, as Israel is cast as a genocidal power rather than a nation defending its citizens against terrorism.

Critics have claimed that Israel restricts journalistic freedom in Gaza. However, journalists do have the opportunity to embed with IDF units, allowing them to cover the conflict from within a professional military framework while staying protected from direct combat and from Hamas intimidation. This option contrasts sharply with the risks of reporting independently in Gaza, where Hamas’s control over information flow and its documented use of coercion, staging, and propaganda make objective reporting all but impossible. Those who decline to embed with the IDF often do so not out of journalistic principle, but because they prioritise access to Hamas-held areas – even at the cost of accuracy and independence.

By ignoring these complexities, the media not only misrepresents the reality on the ground but becomes complicit in Hamas’s weaponisation of narrative and imagery.

A Call for Moral Clarity

It is time for media outlets, civil society, and political leaders to wake up to the role they are playing in perpetuating Hamas’s war strategy.

We call on:

News organisations to apply rigorous standards of verification, especially when reporting from conflict zones controlled by terror groups.
Governments to distinguish between genuine humanitarian concern and politically weaponised narratives.
Human rights groups to hold Hamas accountable for its systematic abuse of civilian populations, rather than focusing disproportionately on Israel’s responses.
Academics and analysts to challenge the narrative-driven discourse that dominates mainstream coverage.

Truth should not be the first casualty of war. Nor should it be handed over to a terror regime as a weapon.

Conclusion: Fighting for the Facts

In this conflict, Hamas doesn’t need to win battles – it needs to survive, suffer, and be seen. Israel, by contrast, is expected to win with minimal force, zero civilian harm, and perfect public relations. This is not only unrealistic – it is strategically impossible.

And yet, while Hamas manipulates, the world condemns Israel.

If we are to preserve any sense of moral clarity, the media must stop rewarding lies and start demanding accountability – not just from democracies, but from those who exploit democracy’s openness to wage war from behind a child’s crib.

References

This article was originally published by the Israel Institute of New Zealand.

How Hamas Controls the Media