Israel sends influencers to Gaza distribution sites, amid continued ban on foreign media

Israel’s diaspora affairs ministry paid for American and Israeli social media influencers to film and share content from distribution sites where over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since May, amid a continued ban on the entry of international journalists.

According to Haaretz, the Israeli government arranged for 10 influencers this week to enter the war-battered Gaza Strip, in a campaign aiming to "reveal the truth" about the humanitarian conditions in the enclave.

At least 271 Palestinians have died from malnutrition and starvation, with pictures of starving babies and children causing outrage worldwide, but Israel has repeatedly claimed that there is no famine in the devastated territory.

The soaring malnutrition rates occurred after Israel blocked off all food and emergency aid from entering the enclave for months, before allowing small amounts to trickle in and allowing the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to start operations.

The GHF sites have been denounced as "death traps" by aid groups internationally, who point to the near daily killings of desperate Gazans trying to acquire food by the Israeli military and security contractors employed by the GHF.

The sites force civilians into areas controlled by the Israeli military in order to get food and make it impossible for Gaza's most vulnerable people to acquire aid. They have also seen regular stampedes.

The influencers' tour marked a rare instance where people were allowed into Gaza by Israel, amid the ongoing ban on foreign journalists.

An Israeli statement said the reason was to "refute Hamas lies that are being distributed by foreign media".

It added: "The tour took place as part of the fight against Hamas’ campaign to discredit [Israel] – the ‘hunger campaign’ – which is meant to damage Israel’s image in the international arena".

The group of influencers included Xaviaer DuRousseau, who has over 500,000 followers on Instagram and describes himself as a Zionist activist. In his posts, he encourages people to "stand with Israel" and compares Hamas to Nazis.

Following his visit into Gaza, he wrote in a post on X: "There is enough food at this aid base to feed every person in Gaza for at least a week, but the UN, Hamas, etc refuse to distribute the food efficiently. Instead, it sits here to spoil and be stolen. How’s that Israel’s fault?".

Another influencer, a Miami based attorney, Brooke Goldstein, wrote: "What I saw proved that what the media is reporting about the situation is absolutely false. The GHF’s mission is to feed the people of Gaza in a way that Hamas can’t steal the food, and it’s working. I witnessed over 13,000 people being fed including 3,300 women and children."

Other influencers on the tour included Druze Israeli teenager Marwan Jaber, Israel-based Jewish-American Jeremy Abramson and Israeli content creators Shiraz Shukrun and David Mayofis.

In a video posted on X, Jaber said he saw UN staff and shouted at them to be ashamed of themselves for not doing anything. He then claimed "after I spoke in Arabic [to them], they understood the need to help".

Ahead of the tour, organisers "emphasised the role of the UN and other international organisations, which are refusing to distribute many tons of food that’s waiting".

Israel however, has placed a complete ban on the operations of UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for providing aid to Palestinian refugees, and regularly attacked its staff in Gaza.

The tour comes amid growing international criticism of Israel, after forces on the ground admitted to destroying food, water and medical supplies on trucks left to rot at the Kerem Shalom (Karam Abu Salem) crossing.

Israel’s Kan broadcaster reported that trucks carrying tens of thousands of humanitarian aid parcels were left by Israel in the sun for weeks without being distributed, leaving them to spoil.

The UN and other international organisations have noted that at least 17,000 children suffer from malnutrition in Gaza currently, with deaths expected to accelerate rapidly if urgent assistance is not allowed in.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced what he called a "lack of humanity and compassion" for Palestinians in Gaza, which he said was a "moral crisis that challenges the global conscience".

The Israeli army has also created a special unit, known as the "legitimisation cell" in order to link journalists to Hamas in an effort to justify their killing, +972 Magazine reported last week.

The investigation, which cited intelligence sources, said that the unit was formed following the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023 and was tasked with gathering information that could be used for Israeli propaganda.

Earlier this month, international journalists called on Israel to allow media workers into Gaza, as warnings of famine grew.

"Unrestricted, independent access for foreign journalists is urgently needed, not only to document the unfolding atrocities but to ensure that the truth of this war is not dictated by those who control the weapons and the narrative," the Freedom To Report petition said.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed over 61,000 Palestinians and has been determined to be a genocide by rights groups, NGOs, and many governments.