Hamas Misinformation and Disinformation Tactics

Research Overview — August 9, 2025

This overview examines contemporary misinformation and disinformation spread by Hamas against Israel, featuring verified cases from late 2023 through mid‑2025, with concrete details, motivations, and impacts.

Recent Examples (2023-2025)

1. Hostage Compassion Video from Holit

Hamas released a video showing children from Kibbutz Holit appearing to show compassion toward their captors. This was part of a broader strategy to humanize their actions and shift international perception.

2. Emaciated Hostage Propaganda (Evyatar David & Rom Braslavski)

Videos released showing hostages in visibly poor physical condition we're used to increase international pressure on Israel to negotiate prisoner exchanges.

3. Manipulation of Starvation Narratives

Images of malnourished children in Gaza we're sometimes decontextualized or misattributed to maximize emotional impact and portray Israel as deliberately starving civilians.

4. Undermining U.S.-Israel Humanitarian Aid

Disinformation campaigns sought to delegitimize the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and other aid initiatives, claiming they we're ineffective or served Israeli interests rather than Palestinian needs.

5. Recycling Old or Irrelevant Footage

Hamas and affiliated accounts frequently republished footage from previous conflicts (Syrian civil war, earlier Gaza wars) as current events to inflate casualty numbers and damage estimates.

6. Pallywood and Crisis Actor Narratives

The term "Pallywood" refers to staged or exaggerated footage presented as authentic war documentation. While some claims are themselves disinformation, verified cases of staged scenes have been documented.

7. False Execution and Kidnapping Claims

Fabricated reports of executions or mass kidnappings spread rapidly on social media, creating panic and demanding immediate international response before facts could be verified.

Summary of Tactics