Fake news and psychological warfare: ‘An unbelievable success of Hamas’

‘We’ve learned with the time to filter the messages and not to believe anything that Hamas, or whoever, says, until there is an official confirmation,’ said Talik Gvili, whose son’s body is being held in Gaza.

By Pesach Benson and Anna Epshtein, TPS

Monday’s headlines claimed Hamas had approved a list of 34 Israeli hostages to be released in a potential ceasefire agreement, raising both hopes of a breakthrough and fears that some hostages would be condemned to possibly never return. The following day, Israeli officials said they never received such a list from Hamas.

“The report in the Arab media about a pause of a number of weeks in the war in exchange for a list of hostages’ names is absolutely false and an additional part of the psychological warfare that Hamas is trying to use on the hostages’ families and the citizens of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Relatives of the captives told The Press Service of Israel that Hamas’s fake news and hostage videos take a toll.

Learning to ‘Filter the Messages’

“We’ve learned with the time to filter the messages and not to believe anything that Hamas, or whoever, says, until there is an official confirmation,” said Talik Gvili.

Her son, Police Sgt. First Class Ran Gvili, 24, was killed in the area of Kibbutz Alumim on October 7 and his body taken to Gaza.

“I can’t say it doesn’t shake us at all, it does. But we understand it’s psychological warfare against us, and we try to keep calm. It’s a pity to see that the media help Hamas with their goal and print all kinds of rumors before they are confirmed,” she said.

The psychological warfare has taken a particular toll on the Bibas family. Terrorists kidnapped Yarden Bibas, his wife Shiri, and their children, Ariel, then four, and Kfir, then seven months, the youngest hostage.

Shiri and the children were supposed to be released along with 105 other women and children during the temporary ceasefire of November 2023.

On November 29, Hamas claimed the three had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. But the terror group provided no evidence. Israel accused Hamas of psychological warfare and said the terror group was responsible for the safety of the hostages.

“It’s really hard for us when another half-true or entirely false report about the possible deal gets out, and then we are bombarded with questions, and it’s not pleasant in any situation, but especially in a one like this,” Eylon Keshet, a cousin of the Israeli-Argentine/Peruvian Yarden Bibas told TPS-IL.

“It doesn’t really give us hope, rather it confuses us. And it hurts us to think about the families that are not on the list. How should they feel?! We know that when there is anything true people from the army get in touch with us. Last time, it was several months ago when they let us know about a sign of life from Yarden.”

Keshet added, “We want to really ask the media and the public not to take part in this psychological warfare of Hamas and not to publish unconfirmed information.”

‘An Unbelievable Success of Hamas’

Dr. Ron Schleifer, who teaches communications at Ariel University, told TPS-IL, “Everything that comes out of Hamas’s mouth in the context of the hostages should be treated through the lens of a psychological war. Every video clip, every message.”

According to Schleifer, a hostage deal is not a means but a goal for Hamas.

“They understand they are defeated in the field, so they go to psychological warfare. They act according to the plan. The hostages are the second stage, the first was the rapes and murders of the October 7 that were meant to shock the Israelis and successfully managed to do so. The second step is a long war. The goal is to exhaust the Israelis.”

Schleifer explained that Hamas sought to “give hope and then blow it up” with Sunday’s hostage list.

“When you build up the hopes and then blow them up, it’s a much bigger breakdown. It influences the families, and then friends, and then the media, and then the security system and eventually the political system,” he said.

“It’s an unbelievable success of Hamas that they managed to shift the blame for the hostages still in Gaza to the Israeli government and made people forget that Hamas kidnapped them to Gaza, not Netanyahu,” Schleifer added.

Asked how Israel could counter Hamas’s psychological warfare, Schleifer said Israel need only return the blame to Hamas.

“And we don’t do this. We have so much intelligence from Hamas members that we have arrested during this war about the tortures of Hamas against Gazans, not Israelis,” Schleifer insisted.

“Israel must use the Gazan’s disappointment against Hamas, must lead it. And Hamas should always be afraid. Hamas members surrender each day, we just do not speak about this in the media enough.”

At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 96 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.

HamashostagesPsychological warfare