Israel’s military assigned a special unit to identify journalists it could portray as undercover Hamas operatives to target them and deflect international criticism over the killing of media persons, according to a report by the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 magazine. The “legitimisation cell” was established in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, to collect information aimed at bolstering Israel’s image and reinforcing diplomatic and military backing from key allies, as per the report citing three intelligence sources. The intelligence sources said that the Israeli military regarded the media as an extension of the battlefield, which allowed it to declassify sensitive intelligence for public release.“There was this phrase, ‘that’s good for legitimacy,’” one source recalled, as per +972 magazine. “The goal was simply to find as much material as possible to serve hasbara efforts.” They added that even personnel outside the Legitimisation Cell were instructed to flag any material that could support Israel in the information war.Several “research teams” had been formed within Israeli military intelligence over the past two years to focus on “exposing Hamas’ lies.” They said the aim was to “discredit” journalists covering the war on broadcast networks, in allegedly a reliable and precise way,” but those who they alleged were affiliated with Hamas, official security sources were quoted as saying by the magazine. Four Al Jazeera journalists, along with two freelancers, were killed in an Israeli strike last week in Gaza City. Among them was prominent correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who the Israeli military alleged was a Hamas operative “posed as a journalist.”In October 2024, the military alleged that six Al Jazeera journalists, including Al-Sharif, were operatives, a claim he strongly denied. The Israeli army killed six journalists in a strike on August 10, which it acknowledged was directed at Sharif.Two months earlier, in July, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had voiced concern for al-Sharif’s safety, warning that he was “targeted by an Israeli military smear campaign, which he believes is a precursor to his assassination,” as cited by +972 magazine.“If the global media is talking about Israel killing innocent journalists, then immediately there’s a push to find one journalist who might not be so innocent, as if that somehow makes killing the other 20 acceptable,” an intelligence source was quoted as saying by the magazine. In at least one instance since the war began, the “Legitimisation Cell” distorted intelligence to falsely present a journalist as a member of Hamas’s military wing, two intelligence sources said.
