Online influencers, including a social media account that has repeatedly spread misinformation amid the war, were escorted by the Israeli military into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to see the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, where aid has been mounting.
The Israel Defense Forces and the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories in July escorted Israeli and international media reporters to Kerem Shalom Crossing to view the aid packages waiting to be collected by the United Nations, as part of a campaign aimed at pressuring the UN to step up its activities.
The military and COGAT have since invited social media influencers to view the aid at the crossing, while also denying access to lawmakers, such as Labor MK Gilad Kariv, whose requests were rebuffed (Hebrew link).
In late July, former Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy was at the crossing, and in early August, Israeli model and influencer Nataly Dadon posted footage to Instagram from an IDF-escorted visit to the aid depot in Gaza.
On Wednesday, an account on the X social media site, which impersonates Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, published a live broadcast from the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom, despite army regulations barring livestreaming from within the Strip.
A man apparently behind the account interviewed the IDF’s international media spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, from the crossing regarding the aid efforts.
The account, using the name Mossad Commentary and the spy agency’s logo, has repeatedly published misinformation and sensitive information not permitted for publication during the war. It currently has over 848,000 followers and is seen by millions of users.
At the start of the war in October 2023, the account made numerous false claims, including: sharing a clip from the Arma 3 video game, falsely claiming it to be of Israel’s in-development laser air defense system, the Iron Beam; stating that “Yemen officially declares war on Israel,” despite that not being the case; and amplifying a false rumor that Hamas terrorists “baked a baby in the oven” during the October 7 onslaught.
In April 2024, the account falsely claimed that the deaths of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen organization in the Gaza Strip were caused by a roadside bomb planted by Hamas. The IDF has said that its drone strikes killed the aid workers.
In September 2024, the fake Mossad account published the names of six hostages whose bodies were found inside a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah after being murdered by Hamas, hours before the bodies were brought out of Gaza for identification, while the troops were still inside the tunnel.
Their families had also not been notified when the names were posted to social media and viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
A spokesperson for COGAT said it and the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit had coordinated the entry of the influencers, thought they did not say if they vetted them. The IDF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.