The image of the burning Merkava tank and its takeover by Palestinian fighters has become an iconic image with psychological dimensions (Anatolia)

During the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, the Israeli representative Gilad Erdan tried to draw attention with a theatrical shot on the United Nations podium, raising the mobile phone number of Yahya Sinwar, which turned out to be unrelated to the head of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza, and the movement responded directly by publishing Erdan's own mobile phone number, and calls and messages poured in to him that he did not like from around the world.

Erdan's shot provoked widespread ridicule inside and outside the General Assembly meeting, and was nothing but a model of psychological warfare management and the battle of consciousness based on the power of image, persuasion and breaking narratives, in which Hamas succeeded to a large extent, as proven by Israeli facts and analysis itself.

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Hamas and the resistance realized that the Israeli interior is scattered under the right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, which faces a tense and deeply divided internal situation in nature and then rejects war, and this government also found itself in front of an unconvinced and then skeptical international public opinion that rejected the majority of Israeli narratives, and its intense and confused propaganda could not support any of these narratives, but in turn fell into many naïve mistakes, falsification and media failures.

In contrast, Hamas has been able to penetrate through many Israeli weaknesses to reshape Israeli and international public opinion targeted.

Gal Yavitz, of Israel's Bar-Ilan University Department of Communication Sciences, told the Jerusalem Post that "Hamas knew and understood Israel's weaknesses and used them in a cynical and manipulative way."

Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida turned into a highly influential communication phenomenon and a tool for psychological warfare (Al-Jazeera)

October 7 between action and reaction

The carefully planned psychological warfare of Hamas and the resistance since the "Al-Aqsa Flood" strike and later the effective exploitation of the issue of prisoners and detainees and Israeli military losses contributed to undermining these narratives, supported by a careful investment of professionally composed photos and videos, with the frequent and moving appearance of the spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, Abu Obeida, who has itself become a tool and a highly influential communication phenomenon.

Exceptionally, the October 7 attack on the Gaza envelope was a military and psychological shock to Israeli society that greatly helped Hamas and the resistance to determine the course of psychological warfare and take the lead in this context.

The movement was able to control the flow of information and videos of the operation that show the weakness of the IDF and the confusion of its leadership, with the aim of dismantling stereotypes and replacing the image of an army that is defeated and unable to protect Israeli society itself.

The resistance tightened the game of communication from the first hours of the Al-Aqsa flood through the appearance of its chief of staff, Muhammad Al-Deif, then the video materials of the military media of the Qassam Brigades, then the emergence of its spokesman Abu Obeida through the accounts of the Telegram application, when the first hours witnessed the publication of about 50 publications on the available application (with the ban imposed on other applications), then the gradual and calculated appearance of its leaders abroad, and this communication policy was effective and successful, especially with the great confusion of the Israeli government.

The Qassam Brigades' attack on the settlements and barracks surrounding Gaza was a psychological trauma that affected Israeli society (Al Jazeera)

The communication policy of Hamas and the resistance through speeches, publications, videos and media interventions focused on goals with psychological dimensions targeting the structure of Israeli society, which can be summarized as follows:

  • Exploiting the internal division in Israel to penetrate by the power of image and persuasion.
  • Deepening this rift and division to deepen the political crisis.
  • Show the image of a weak and defeated army.
  • Showing the weakness and mistakes of Netanyahu and his government.
  • Demonstrate the strength and military strength of the resistance and the ability to plan and execute.
  • He sowed fear and frustration in Israeli society and undermined the Israeli security theory.

Dr. Yaniv Levitan, an information warfare researcher at the University of Haifa, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that "psychological warfare is one of the main weapons in Hamas's arsenal, because it allows the movement to achieve great achievements at a very low cost."

For his part, Israeli psychological warfare researcher Ron Schleifer believes in a report for the same newspaper that Hamas's goal was to convince others that it was right, so it was showing disturbing videos that caused Israel great frustration and helplessness.

Haaretz reports that throughout the war, "Hamas and Islamic Jihad tried to capitalize on the public debate in Israel between those who support a large-scale military offensive and those who want to secure the release of the roughly 240 prisoners before the bombardment of Gaza."

On the other hand, the main propaganda blow of the occupation, which is imagined to accommodate and justify all subsequent brutal practices in Gaza, was the adoption of the narrative of the resistance beheading children and rape, passing on the sayings of "brutality" and "terrorism" and likening it to ISIS, and then exporting it to Israel and to the sympathetic or supportive West.

This narrative did not last long, despite its adoption by the official West and its leaders and media institutions at the beginning, and was refuted by the Israeli media itself, and thus the brutality of the occupation army remained naked and subject to moral fall, which was blatant and provocative with the power of the image, videos, and the deviant and undisciplined practices of the occupation soldiers and officers in accordance with the requirements of military behavior.

In the end, Israel had lost the image war in the early hours of the Al-Aqsa flood, and all that happened after that was an attempt to remedy the defeat and rebuild what was shattered in the collective psyche and imagination of Israeli society and to try to evoke the old stereotype of the Israeli army and intelligence services superior to all.

Members of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Getty Images)

The military aspect. Stereotype demolition

In the July 2006 war, the sight of Merkava 4 tanks (the pride of the Israeli military industry) being ambushed by the resistance and the Kornet traps was unprecedented and militarily impressive, but the image of these tanks after the resistance stormed the Gaza envelope and its settlements and barracks, mounted by a crowd of Gazans waving Palestinian flags, represented a severe psychological blow that was too severe to be avoided.

For many years, the military arsenal - including the Merkava - remained at the heart of Israeli propaganda to promote the image of the "invincible army", thus achieving psychological deterrence and consolidating the prior moral defeat, and therefore the destructive images and videos of the Merkava (symbol of superiority) over which the Gazans play and the scene of soldiers withdrawing from it were the most influential and the most indicative of defeat, and an embarrassment to the Israeli army, whose psychological and military effects will not be erased.

These photos and videos, and those depicting ambushes and direct confrontations with the IDF, helped destroy the stereotypical image of that "invincible" army, especially among the Israeli public, which considered the military and security establishment a safety valve and a guarantee of stability and survival.

The intensity of the brutal attacks on civilians, hospitals, schools and key sources of life in Gaza was a desperate attempt to rebuild that old mental image of local and international public opinion of that unbreakable army and unbeatable weapon, but the results were counterproductive.

An Israeli tank destroyed by the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza envelope (Anatolia)

Images of battles on the ground broadcast by the Qassam Brigades and the resistance factions proved that the Israeli army is virtually incapable of direct field fights, and that it masters the systematic bombing and destruction of civilian facilities and invests in enormous blind firepower, and the resistance has worked to consolidate this through the many videos of the destruction of Israeli vehicles, tanks and armored vehicles from zero distance.

The flow of images of the destruction of hospitals, schools and homes under the pretext of the presence of weapons, tunnels and resistance fighters – which have also been proven false – was taking place in the eyes of world public opinion, which was watching the moral fall of the Israeli army with its leadership and soldiers, changing its positions and convictions on the conflict.

Dror Sadot, a spokeswoman for the Israeli organization B'Tselem, which monitors Israeli violations against Palestinians, said: "The dehumanization at the helm of the PA extends to the soldiers."

Israel once again fell into the trap of the superiority complex and "paranoia", as it missed that it no longer - like all major powers - monopolizes the production or falsification and marketing of the image, the manipulation of facts and the monopoly of psychological deterrence strategies, as the tools for controlling the image and the speed of its production, transmission and even checking have become easy and available to everyone.

The Palestinian resistance documented the targeting of Israeli vehicles in Gaza (Anadolu Agency)

It was easy for the public to learn about the falsity and scandalous Israeli propaganda in Israel's video of what it described as fighters surrendering semi-naked and yet holding their machine guns high, and these clips became ridiculous.

Amid the Israeli blackout, it was also easy for observers to know the real numbers of dead and wounded by the Israeli occupation soldiers by monitoring the lists of Israeli hospitals and the number of funerals published by the Israeli press and social media, including those of the media arms of the resistance.

Thus, the information, videos and photos broadcast by Hamas and the resistance to the battlefield battles seemed more credible and reliable than the Israeli side, which tried in a desperate and scandalous improvisational manner, for example, to suggest that the Shifa hospital in Gaza was a center of operations for the Qassam Brigades, by photographing machine guns and a tunnel under the hospital that could clearly be inferred that it was built by Israel, which was widely ridiculed even by the Israelis themselves.

It is also noted that the Israeli army published and then deleted many of the photos and videos because they were blatantly fake, and some of them clearly revealed that it was the Israeli army that killed many settlers and soldiers while trying to counter Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

The handover of prisoners showed the commitment of the Qassam Brigades to the truce and humanitarian laws (Anatolia)

The issue of prisoners and the moral and psychological dimensions

It was easy for world public opinion to compare and draw lessons from two images: the image of Israeli prisoners and detainees released by Hamas in full health and decent and clean clothing, and the image of the Israeli army driving naked Palestinian abductees into a truck.

Hamas has employed the issue of prisoners and detainees remarkably, and it knows the importance of this file for Israeli society and world public opinion and the extent of embarrassment it causes to Benjamin Netanyahu.

The phased release of prisoners (episodes watched by millions of Israelis) with extensive coverage, photos, videos, and prisoners' reactions and statements was a critical communication blow in the context of psychological warfare.

Gazans semi-naked on an Israeli truck (Reuters)

Israeli researcher Yaniv Levitan points out that the strongest card in the hands of Hamas is the prisoners, so the movement used videos in which the prisoners appear in 3 stages, the first of which is the capture process itself, "which conveyed to the Israeli viewer a message that there is no safe place even if it is inside his home."

The second stage, according to Levitan, is represented by the testimonies of the prisoners that broke the Israeli narrative about the supposed "brutality" of the resistance, and the clips of their release came in the third stage, and Levitan confirms that the clips of this third and final stage of the release of prisoners allowed Hamas to control the entire Israeli agenda.

The uncontrived "moral image" of the resistance expressed by those who were released, their gratitude for the good treatment they received, and the direct reassurances they found from Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, marked a pivotal change in world opinion towards the Israeli campaign on Gaza and the accompanying distorted Israeli narratives about the resistance.

Psychological warfare is one of the main weapons in Hamas's arsenal, because it allows the movement to achieve great achievements at a very low cost.

These photos, testimonies and videos have achieved the main objectives of the resistance, which were to break Israeli propaganda against it, change the attitudes of world public opinion, confirm the falsity of Israeli narratives, and show the Qassam Brigades as an organized and disciplined army that adheres to the truce, operates in accordance with the principles and customs of war, and abides by international humanitarian laws.

Researcher Yaniv Levitan points out that the videos of the release of prisoners, which were widely broadcast in Israel and followed by millions, represented a propaganda show glorifying Hamas, which created conditions in which its propaganda products were presented through the Israeli media, adding, "It can be said that Hamas has turned our channels of communication into weapons aimed at Israel's head."

The deepening of the political crisis inside Israel and the condemnation of Netanyahu and his extremist government was a major goal for Hamas, according to Israeli researcher Ilan Manor, who says that "the kidnappers (prisoners) direct their talk to Netanyahu and blame him directly (the prisoner Daniel Aloni), and Hamas is well informed about the Israeli arena and its leaders are aware of the heated discussions about Netanyahu's responsibility, and they try through these clips to stigmatize the Israeli leadership so that it cannot continue the war."

The method of releasing prisoners and dealing civilly with them constituted a severe psychological blow to Netanyahu and his government (Al Jazeera)

It can be said that Hamas has turned our channels of communication into weapons aimed at Israel's head.

by Yaniv Levitan

Israel is rapidly losing many of its supporters in the international arena, especially in Western countries that traditionally support it, and Israeli public opinion has become more congested and rejected by Netanyahu's government and the course of the war as a whole.

Israeli crimes in Gaza have stirred world public opinion and undermined Israel's traditional support from its allies (Getty Images)

Exposing the crime and inverting the image

US President Joe Biden's rotation and frank and explicit criticism of the practices of Netanyahu and his government in Gaza remain the best evidence of the faltering of the entire Israeli narratives and the faltering of the image battles they practiced, despite the support they received from the West at some point.

The new position of Biden, who previously supported Israel in all its steps since October 7 and declared himself a "Zionist", stemmed from the pressures of Israeli brutality and the ugliness of what he is committing in Gaza and his fear of the impact of this on his chances in the upcoming elections with his steady decline, and it also stems from the pressure of American and international public opinion and changes in international positions that concluded that what Israel is doing in Gaza is a series of war crimes with multiple facets and pillars.

The reversal of the picture is also highlighted by the UN General Assembly's December 12 majority vote on a resolution demanding a humanitarian ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, and ensuring humanitarian access to Gaza by a majority of 153 countries, including France, Japan, Canada, and Australia, with Germany and Britain, all traditional allies of Israel, abstaining among 21 other abstentions.

Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN Mocked Yahya Sinwar's Mobile Phone Number at General Assembly Meeting (French)

This indicates a significant decline in international support for Israel in its war on Gaza, with the number of countries supporting the ceasefire increasing from 120 to 153, and dissenting voices dropping from 14 to 10 compared to a similar resolution adopted last October.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has done under the impact of the Israeli massacres Article 99 of the UN Charter, pointing out that the war in Gaza has become a threat to global peace and stability, in reference to international patience has reached its extent on Israel.

Depending on the effects of the image, the media discourse and psychological warfare, opinion polls published by the Israeli newspaper Maariv on November 10 indicate a sharp decline in the popularity of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with only 26% of Israelis considering him worthy of the position.

In contrast, the Times of Israel published the results of a poll among Palestinians conducted by the Palestinian Center for Research and Survey Studies from November 22 to December 44, which showed that 12% of respondents in the West Bank supported Hamas, up from 42%, while 38% supported the movement in Gaza, up from 2023% in a similar poll conducted in September <>.

Global polls also indicate that Israel's war on Gaza is receiving growing popular international rejection, with 67 percent of young Americans aged 18 to 34 and 52 percent of women rejecting Israeli attacks on the Strip, according to a Gallup poll, indicating that the image promoted by Israel is no longer predominant.

Israel does not seem to be much interested in the reversal of the image, the fall of its narratives internationally and the appearance of the "criminal" who is met with increasing aversion everywhere, as it proceeds with its brutal war on Gaza, but the image it has long promoted has been shattered, and long-term political defeat has occurred.

The Palestinian death toll since the beginning of the aggression has risen to 18,787 martyrs and 50,897 wounded, most of them women and children (Anatolia)

John Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for International and Strategic Policy in Washington, argues that Hamas "seeks to use Israel's much greater power to defeat Israel itself, Israel's power allows it to kill Palestinian civilians, destroy Palestinian infrastructure and defy global calls for restraint, all of which advance Hamas's long-term goals."

While Israel has suffered heavy military losses and failed to achieve its stated goals of war, The Nation magazine notes in an analysis that "despite the violence Israel has unleashed on Palestinians in Gaza, it has failed to achieve its political goals."

The late U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in 1969 in reference to the 1969 Vietnam War, "We fought a military war and our adversaries fought a political battle, we sought physical attrition, our adversaries aimed to exhaust us psychologically, and in the process we lost sight of one of the basic principles of guerrilla warfare: guerrilla warfare wins if it doesn't lose, and the conventional army loses if it doesn't win."

Source : Al Jazeera