GAZA CITY — Israel is preparing a propaganda war ahead of allowing foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli website Ynet, the government plans to organize military-guided tours to justify its two-year-long genocide in Gaza.
Despite months of preparation, Ynet said Israel admits its media readiness remains weak. Officials fear that international reporters will expose the catastrophic reality inside Gaza and fuel global outrage over war crimes and genocide reports.
On October 23, the Israeli Supreme Court granted the government an additional 30 days to respond to a petition filed in 2024 by the Foreign Press Association. The petition demands access for international journalists to Gaza, challenging Israel’s ban imposed since October 7, 2023.
During the court session, the Attorney General acknowledged that “the situation has changed” in Gaza. He said Israel plans to renew army-led media tours inside what it calls the “yellow line,” the zone its forces retreated to after the recent ceasefire two weeks ago.
Israeli officials told Ynet they expect a flood of humanitarian reports once journalists enter Gaza. These reports, they said, could intensify evidence of genocide and war crimes.
The Israeli milutary’s Spokesperson’s Unit recently held a strategic meeting with the Foreign Ministry and the National Directorate for Public Diplomacy to plan for the journalists’ entry.
“We expect hostile attacks on social media and traditional outlets,” one Foreign Ministry official said. Another senior Israeli source admitted that the challenge is “huge” due to the scale of destruction in Gaza. “We are preparing visual evidence to show that Hamas turned Gaza into a terrorist state,” he said.
Another official warned that foreign reports about Israeli atrocities will trigger global protests. “When we take journalists on tours, we must show them what happened,” he said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the plan. It said Israeli military escorts serve as tools of propaganda, with journalists only allowed brief, highly controlled visits to pre-selected sites. CPJ noted that such restrictions violate international press freedom standards.
Ynet reported that many Israeli officials doubt the government’s readiness. One senior source said, “I don’t see real preparation. The international media has already shown the destruction and death tolls. What’s missing are the human stories and that’s what journalists will bring now.”
Another official added, “The public diplomacy system is paralyzed. Officials are still stuck in the previous war. It’s a communication failure in both wars; the one that ended and the one about to begin.”
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor stated that Israel is deliberately blocking foreign journalists and investigators to hide evidence of genocide and war crimes in Gaza.
In a statement, the group said Israel runs a “systematic policy” to erase physical evidence through field operations and administrative measures. These include preventing journalists and investigation committees from entering Gaza to stop any international accountability.
The monitor warned that Israel’s ban on foreign media is part of an institutional effort to keep its crimes “outside global scrutiny.”
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, Israeli forces have killed 254 Palestinian journalists since October 2023 to silence the Palestinian narrative.
Euro-Med added that Israel has completely destroyed several towns, refugee camps, and neighborhoods. Satellite images and field testimonies showed Israeli forces leveling areas, removing debris, and transporting it to unknown sites, a move aimed at wiping out traces of mass killings and explosions.
The group cautioned that any delay in granting journalists access will give Israel more time to destroy remaining evidence and rewrite the story of Gaza’s devastation. — QNN
