A year has passed since the Israeli war on Gaza began on October 7, during which a wave of disinformation spread rapidly, impacting the Palestinian residents in Gaza. Misbar’s fact-checkers from Gaza, Wesam Abo Marq and Eman Hillis have been at the forefront of combating this misinformation.
In this article, Wesam shares insights on the effects of ceasefire misinformation on Gazan residents and fact-checkers and how Israeli trolls downplay the famine crisis. Eman recounts her experiences of displacement and critiques the Israeli Occupation Forces' false claims of “safe zones,” further highlighting how civilian men are viewed as lawful targets.
Impact of Ceasefire Misinformation on Gazan Residents and Fact-Checkers
Ceasefire negotiations have become one of the most viral topics circulating among Gaza residents and in the news amidst the ongoing genocide.
Ceasefire negotiations in Gaza have faced numerous obstacles, with conflicting claims about who is responsible for the deadlock. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with U.S. officials, has repeatedly accused Hamas of obstructing the talks, claiming that Israel made multiple offers which Hamas rejected. However, reports suggest that Hamas has shown willingness to negotiate and even made concessions, aiming for a permanent end to the war and the return of displaced Gazans.
On the Israeli side, complications have arisen due to Netanyahu's actions, such as reducing the authority of the Israeli negotiating team and introducing new conditions that have further stalled progress. These actions, alongside Netanyahu's firm stance on eliminating Hamas, have been viewed by some, including members of Israel's own negotiating team, as deliberate attempts to prolong the war.
Misbar's investigative team has been actively monitoring ceasefire talks, publishing many articles that debunk misleading claims shared by trolls and biased media outlets.
The relentless war has taken a heavy psychological toll on Gaza’s residents, leaving them desperate for any sign of hope. This desperation made them particularly vulnerable to rumors of a ceasefire, clinging to the idea as if it were a lifeline. Shrouded in secrecy, details of these negotiations were scarce, leaving people in the dark.
I remember hearing numerous times that ceasefire negotiations were underway, with both sides close to an agreement—hostage deals being the final obstacle to a lasting ceasefire. For many in Gaza, this faint promise of a ceasefire was the only glimmer of hope. It became the one thing people clung to—a potential end to the violence and a chance to reclaim a sense of life.
"My daily routine before the war, which I used to find boring, is something I deeply miss now," my friend Ahmad told me. "If the war ends soon, I'll be overjoyed just to wake up early again and attend morning lectures at university. I’ll finally feel alive and active, enjoying the life I’ve missed out on this past year."
I often hear similar sentiments whenever I talk to my friends and family members. My cousin, Anas, who graduated with a degree in civil engineering just two months before the war, expressed his agony, saying, "I’ll erase this year from my memory. I will consider this year a long nightmare."
Despite calls from numerous international organizations and global leaders for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Israel continues to ignore these appeals, persisting in its collective punishment and genocide of Gaza’s civilians.
I often found myself overwhelmed by doubt, unable to trust much of the news I encountered. It became even more challenging when friends and family sought clarity from me. They frequently asked if the ceasefire rumors were true, and I rarely had direct answers to give.
Even when the prospects of a ceasefire seemed distant, I remained cautious in my responses, especially when speaking to my family.
After leaving Gaza, my mother would still ask if this ceasefire proposal was any different and if they might finally be able to return to their home in northern Gaza.
Despite monitoring the news almost constantly, I hesitate to tell her the truth. In a time of uncertainty, that faint hope of a ceasefire became the only solace left for the people I love.
How Israeli Trolls Downplay the Famine Crisis in Gaza
Amid a year of genocide in Gaza, Israel has been blocking the entry of food into the Strip, effectively starving the population.
To evade accountability, Israeli officials have falsely accused Hamas of seizing food supplies and continue to claim that there is no famine in Gaza, despite widespread reports to the contrary.
The United Nations has raised concern over Israel’s systematic obstruction of aid deliveries to several areas in the Gaza Strip, citing the ongoing war and stringent restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid, as well as the closure of border crossings.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials have attempted to deflect responsibility for the aid blockade since the start of the war, claiming there is no famine and that sufficient aid is available in the region.
Despite these claims, a report published on September 16 by 15 humanitarian aid organizations revealed that Israel has blocked 83 percent of food aid from reaching Gaza nearly a year into the conflict.
On July 24, in the U.S. Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the International Criminal Court's claims that Israel is deliberately starving the people of Gaza, calling them "utter, complete nonsense" and a "fabrication."
Netanyahu also accused Hamas of stealing aid, claiming that “The people of Gaza are suffering from hunger because Hamas is stealing food aid.” This claim was refuted by U.N. aid agencies.
U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Lynn Hastings told CNN that Hamas could not be stealing aid because no aid was coming into Gaza in the first place due to Israel’s blockade.
In addition, Israeli trolls have been denying the famine in Gaza throughout the ongoing genocide, circulating misleading photos, videos, and claims that downplay the severity of the crisis.
Pro-Israel users have used hashtags like “#Pallywood” and “#Gazawood” to romanticize the suffering of Gaza’s civilians. These users often share outdated photos of food markets in Gaza to claim that there is no famine in Gaza.
They also have shared photos of children suffering from malnutrition and accused Gazans of staging their suffering amid the one-year war.
According to a report from the government media office on June 22, at least 34 children have died from malnutrition in Gaza.
Following the flour massacre in February, my friend Amir, who lives in the northern Gaza Strip, told me: "We ate bird-feed loaves and soya beans to stave off hunger.” He added, “We have no flour; a 25-kilo bag now costs over $1,100, if you can even find it. The situation is deteriorating."
Reuters reported in February that a mother in Gaza has been forced to use dates to quiet her newborn because there is no available milk, whether natural or formula.
This tactic is part of Israel's strategy to starve the people of Gaza while disregarding calls from international organizations to reopen the border.
As for Misbar’s other fact checker in Gaza, Eman Hillis, she saw the lies behind all of the alleged “safe zones” in Gaza and the many international humanitarian laws in them, as well as the Israeli deliberate targeting of civilian men in Gaza.
The Alleged “Safe Zone” Has Never Been Safe
In its way to allegedly fight Hamas resistance fighters from the northern of the Strip, Israel issued several orders of evacuation to the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to head to the South.
Before the Israeli orders of evacuation to the northern part of the Strip, Israel was releasing a warning to a number of blocks and neighborhoods from the north ordering the residents to evacuate to other blocks inside the same city.
However, the allegedly safe blocks also witnessed insane bombardment and heavy prominent surveillance by army jets, terrorizing civilians in the region, especially children, aside from killing and injuring them.
Aside from the eastern parts of the Shujaiya neighborhood, the Daraj was the first neighborhood to be warned in the city.
As one of the residents of the Daraj Quarter, I escaped the severe bombardment to Al-Remal neighborhood. Nonetheless, I fled the bombardment of the Daraj to witness other severe bombardments in Al-Remal neighborhood.
The policy of warning blocks did not last long. A week after the war began, Israel dropped leaflets on us ordering us to evacuate to the southern part of the Strip, calling it “safe.”
As I evacuated to all of the places designated as “safe zones” by the Israeli army and am currently in one of them, I can state that none of the “safe zones” were safe at all. In all of them, Israel bombed and obliterated the displaced civilians, without prior notice. And when a prior notice was given, Israel did not grant us any time to flee.
In the first months of the war, the south of the Strip was considered “safe.” I stayed in the South in that period of war and know for sure that calling it “safe” is nothing but a fake allegation.
There was no place in the south suited for evacuees but to stay in the U.N. school buildings. The overcrowded nature of the buildings deprived us of any sense of privacy and so hygiene was a luxury that could not be found.
Aside from the nonexistence of proper shelters in the South, Israel was also targeting civilians. My cousin's home in Deir El-Balah city, south of the Strip, was targeted at the very beginning of the war when people of the North were pushed to the South. Two were killed. That bombardment made the evacuees who fled to my cousin’s home go back to their homes, saying, “The bombardment is everywhere. We better die in our homes rather than die in others’.”
All of the cities of the south were still considered a “safe zone” until Israel decided to turn its focus to the southern city of Khan Younis; claiming that the city is Hamas’s stronghold.
Still inside Khan Younis, I evacuated from the southern part of Khan Younis to Al-Mawasi region, western Khan Younis, which was labeled as the “safe zone,” and people were pushed into it.
Al-Mawasi was a desert land. I was struggling to find water and food. There were no shelters. We were forced to set tents on the dunes of sand under the sun of January that was scorching in our Neylon tents and the stormy rainy days of winter.
And in Al-Mawasi, I was a victim of the first massacre that happened in the region. On January 21, Israel attacked us without prior notice. It was the first time for the Israeli troops to advance in the designated “safe zone” of Al-Mawasi.
They besieged the hospital and the place where I was seeking shelter and forced us to run without taking a piece of our belongings.
All of us were civilians. I looked and searched for a sign of any military men among the people who were running with me but did not find any. However, the shooting did not stop.
Some of my friends preferred to stay in Al-Mawasi believing that the Israeli storming would end soon and the troops would go, clutching to the thought that Al-Mawasi is a “safe zone” and the Israeli operation would soon end. On the contrary, the Israeli troops kept advancing in Al-Mawasi.
My friends were sieged and surrounded by the IOF soldiers. They were forced to cross an Israeli detecting point that was made near Al-Aqsa University, while the IOF soldiers were watching them and heading their guns to them, with the possibility of shooting them or imprisoning them at any moment.
Several of the people's horrific testimonies regarding Al-Mawasi’s detecting gate and the breaches of the Israeli soldiers were documented by Al Jazeera. Some were killed and some were imprisoned; all of them were traumatized.
I ran from Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis city to Rafah city on foot. However, the Israeli propaganda that was launched to justify the invasion of Rafah kept me in terror, especially after the nightmare I lived in Al-Mawasi.
The Israeli operation in Rafah was launched. Israel dropped leaflets on us ordering us to evacuate again to Al-Mawasi region. The leaflets said that the IOF would “work with great force against the terror organizations in the area in which you are located - as it has done until now.” The leaflets contained clear threats with the use of terror. This language of terror that is used to forcibly displace people breaches international humanitarian law, according to the rule of military evacuation.
Whether in its policy of invading the cities in the Strip or in its behaviors that breached and are breaching several international humanitarian laws, the world allowed Israel to do what it wished and to invade Rafah which was the shelter of 1.2 million people.
After dropping the leaflets, Israel did not give us any time to flee. The IOF began to carpet-bomb Rafah immediately after dropping the leaflets.
I fled Rafah with my family back to Al-Mawasi again. That trauma of running before the military tanks had never left me, but there was no other place. I went back to Khan Younis after 5 months. I could not recognize any place. Most of the buildings are destroyed, the streets are damaged and many blocks are completely obliterated.
Watching Khan Younis closely as it lay in ruins, one could see that Israel was not targeting the military buildings in the city. Everything was a target: the civilian houses, the streets, the school buildings, the mosques, and the infrastructure.
The destruction of the infrastructure in Khan Younis caused dangerous diseases to appear in the Strip, like the poliovirus.
Although it was a “safe zone,” Israel still committed several massacres in Al-Mawasi.
In July, Israel targeted a very crowded area in Al-Mawasi alleging that Mohammed Deif, the leader of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and senior Hamas commander Rafe Salama were there.
In that alleged assassination, 90 were killed and over 300 were wounded. Hamas has refuted the murder of its seniors. However, whether Hamas seniors were killed in that massacre or not, Israel, under international law, can not drop bombs in an overcrowded place of civilians.
AIn another horrible massacre was done by the IOF in September in Al-Mawasi, Israel dropped three 2000-pound bombs in the overcrowded “safe zone” claiming that three Hamas seniors were hidden there.
In the September massacre, 40 were killed, 60 were wounded, and 22 melted. Again, Israel did not provide any proof in its allegation and Hamas refuted the assassination of any of its seniors in that massacre—another indiscriminate bombardment of civilians.
Israel Regards Civilian Men As Lawful Targets While The Media Helped
At the very beginning of the war, three of my cousins were killed. They were all civilians, with dreams and hopes for the future. Because they were adult men, Israel regarded them as “Hamas terrorists.” Their existence was denied by Daniel Hagari, the IOF’s spokesperson, and other zionist parties alleging that the death toll provided by the Gaza Health Ministry is fake.
Every man living in Gaza is regarded as a terrorist by the IOF soldiers. They do not think twice before targeting a man. It does not matter whether he was a civilian or not.
Israeli soldiers admitted many times that they did kill civilians in Gaza just because they were men.
In a call by +972 Magazine with six Israeli soldiers after they were released from active duty in Gaza, a soldier said “The aim was to count how many [terrorists] we killed today. Every [soldier] wants to show that he’s the big guy. The perception was that all the men were terrorists.”
Lavender, the AI machine used to generate targets for assassination by the Israeli army has been used to kill men many times without human supervision on whether the man was a civilian or not. Israeli soldiers admitted that the human supervision on it is to ensure that the selected target is a male and a female.
Media outlets just stress the killing of women and children in Gaza, considering them the two categories that could never be indulged in military activities. However, this reporting reflected badly on us. It indirectly gave a green light for Israel to continue targeting civilian men indiscriminately.
This indiscriminate killing makes us live in a loop of extreme fear for our beloved men in the family. Every Gazan man could be targeted. Their killing would not have that much attention from the media.
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