Israeli army unit 'tasked with smearing and targeting Palestinian journalists in Gaza'

Israel's army has a special intelligence unit dedicated to smearing and targeting Palestinian journalists in Gaza, according to a new investigation by Israeli-Palestinian magazine +972.

Referred to as the “Legitimisation Cell”, the unit was formed in October of 2023 at the onset of the genocide that Israel is waging in the Gaza Strip. 

The +972 investigation, which interviewed three intelligence sources, revealed that the unit was meant to portray Palestinian journalists in Gaza as “as undercover Hamas operatives, in an effort to blunt growing global outrage over Israel’s killing of reporters”.

The report comes days after the Israeli military assassinated Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif in an air strike, following a months-long campaign seeking to portray the journalist as a military operative in an attempt to justify his targeted killing.

The attack on Sunday night also targeted and killed Al Jazeera correspondent and Middle East Eye contributor Mohammed Qreiqeh, alongside camera operators Mohammed Noufal, Ibrahim Zaher, and Moamen Aliwa, and freelance journalist Mohammed al-Khalidi.

The Legitimisation Cell has played the role of a public relations body meant to declassify and produce counter-narratives when media criticism of Israel is heightened, a source told +972. This information has subsequently been shared with media outlets and “also passed regularly to the Americans through direct channels”, the report added.

The report revealed several ways in which the unit has operated to manufacture doubt against the credibility of Palestinian narratives. 

Read more: Israeli army unit 'tasked with smearing and targeting Palestinian journalists in Gaza'