Hamas says 'suspicious' social media accounts 'sowing discord' among Palestinians

Palestinian faction Hamas issued a statement on Thursday warning against "suspicious fake accounts" stirring division between Palestinians on social media.

In a statement released on Telegram, the group highlighted several accounts on X which it accused of spreading fake news and "undermining the resistance".

Hamas called for a "complete boycott of these suspicious accounts, and for avoiding any interaction with them or belief in the lies and misleading news they spread".

On the same day that the statement was posted, Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza took to X to highlight that some of the accounts mentioned in the statement had allegedly "led campaigns" against him and other Palestinians on social media.

"They pushed rificulous claims that I'm 'encouraging' people to leave their land (my country) after I was gifted a passport from a multi-citizenship company, and spread other misinformation that I'm against the Palestinian resistance," Azaiza said.

"It now turns out that these suspicious accounts, like many other 'bots' and suspicious profiles, are run by Israeli occupation agents," he added.

Azaiza, who left Gaza in January after surviving 108 days of Israeli military onslaught on the territory, has previously been the target of online attacks over his alleged views on the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.

Israel has invested heavily in the use of social media tools to influence the narrative on its war on Gaza, including through the use of paid influencers and social media groups run by intelligence units.

In early 2024, the Israeli army admitted that it was behind a Telegram channel which used inflammatory language and posted graphic content of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, despite previous attempts to disassociate from it.

The "72 Virgins – Uncensored" channel regularly posted graphic pictures and videos of killings, drawing supportive messages from Israeli users who subscribed to the channel.