By Samah Abdul Fattah | 2023-12-04

Hamas's actions on October 7 and in subsequent weeks of war with Israel have harmed the Palestinian people and their right to live in peace, according to observers of the conflict.

The group's responsibility is to the people of the Gaza strip, they say, but its tactics on the ground are those of terrorists and its spread of disinformation bring additional suffering to civilians and only prolong the conflict.

"The Palestinian leadership categorically rejects the actions of Hamas and asserts that it does not represent the Palestinian people, their aspirations or their modus of resistance," a Fatah movement leading figure who wished to remain anonymous told Al-Fassel.

Since its inception and throughout its history, the Palestinian resistance "never attacked civilians, as it sees that its battle is against those who bear arms, not civilians," he said.

"The true Palestinian resistance believes that civilians of any nationality, be they Arab or Jewish, have the same rights, protection and right to neutrality in conflicts and confrontations," he said.

Hamas's targeting of civilians "is a historic mistake that will adversely impact the course of the Palestinian cause in the near future," he added.

Hamas has committed atrocities since the beginning of the current conflict by targeting civilians, and then denying doing so, he said.

"But the facts confirm the events, and [Hamas's] detention of hostages for political bargaining and exposing them to danger are totally unacceptable and violate international agreements and laws."

"And so, Hamas has automatically moved itself to the category of terrorist groups with conclusive evidence that is indefensible," he added.

"Consequently, the matter will reflect negatively not only on it but on the entire Palestinian people and the legitimate Palestinian cause, which demands peaceful solutions that preserve the rights of the two peoples and provide safe areas for both."

Hamas propaganda

Since raiding Israel from the Gaza strip on October 7, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, mostly civilians, and taking more than 200 others hostage, Hamas has employed "a carefully thought out media plan" in traditional news and social media, said Mazen Zaki, director of new media at the Ibn al-Waleed Studies and Field Research Center in Egypt.

"But unlike in previous times, it failed," he told Al-Fassel.

Hamas has flooded social media with propaganda and false claims and has misrepresented video footage as a way to garner public support and raise funds.

For example, the terrorist group live-streamed a grandmother's death, showed humiliating hostage videos and announced to Israelis their relatives had been killed, showing its determination to use social media propaganda alongside violence.

Images that have gone viral include footage of a woman's partially naked body in the bed of a pick-up truck cheered by armed men.

"For the first time, targeting civilians in this scandalous manner was praised and publicized" on Hamas social networks, Zaki said, noting that "the [Palestinian] resistance throughout history has never witnessed a similar approach."

"Even real influencers on social networking sites also fell into the trap and spread fake news that has no relation to reality whatsoever," he said.

Hamas narratives have enjoyed amplification online, as they are "systematically spread by Iranian and Russian trolls, and boosted by state media," David Colon, a professor at the Sciences Po university in Paris, told Barron's news outlet.

While at first Hamas's disinformation campaign seemed effective, "it has become a public relations disaster," the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reported October 22.

"Videos and pictures of the slaughter have belied Hamas's once-preferred image as a moderate force fighting for justice," it said.

A tool of Iran

Hamas's media manipulation and lies have caused it to lose any credibility it may have had, and it became obvious, in the eyes of the world, that Hamas is merely a tool of Iranian policy in the Middle East, said Fathi al-Sayed, a researcher specializing in Iranian affairs at the al-Sharq Center for Regional and Strategic Studies.

"Diplomacy practiced by the legitimate Palestinian leadership represented by the Fatah movement has succeeded in recent years in opening diplomatic channels ... not only with the governments of Tel Aviv and Washington but also with most Western governments," he told Al-Fassel.

"It was thus able to garner the sympathy of European governments and peoples in a phenomenon that is very rare in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict," he said.

"However, what the Hamas movement did in terms of targeting civilians and misleading world public opinion ... caused the Palestinian people to lose international sympathy," he told Al-Fassel.

"Unfortunately, the truth has been exposed despite the torrent of posts on social media," he said, noting that there is "a big contradiction" between the truth and Hamas's posts, especially as far as the group is using civilians as human shields.

Finding a peaceful solution to the current conflict must be achieved through legitimate diplomatic channels, al-Sayed said.