A wider war is looming between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah. For nearly a year, the Iranian-backed terrorist group has been launching missiles into the Jewish state from its base in Lebanon. Israel has responded with strikes aimed at Hezbollah operatives and forces, most recently with a remarkable attack on Hezbollah’s pager and communications systems.
But Hezbollah has an ace up its sleeve: the press. The terrorist organization plans to take a page out of Hamas’s playbook.
Hamas controls the Gaza Health Ministry and uses it to issue wildly distorted casualty stats aimed at turning popular opinion against Israel. The terrorist group sought to limit Israel’s ability to respond by increasing international pressure against the Jewish state.
“I would not take anything that Hamas says at face value. I’m not sure anyone in this room would take at face value or report something that ISIS had said [and] the same applies to Hamas,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned reporters during an Oct. 20, 2023, press conference.
A few days later, Luke Baker, the former Jerusalem bureau chief for Reuters, warned that “Hamas has a clear propaganda incentive to inflate civilian casualties as much as possible.”
The numbers, Baker noted, are simply “not verifiable,” and “the only source news organizations have for them is Hamas.”
Regrettably, far too many news outlets didn’t heed these warnings, with many regurgitating casualty stats supplied by the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. The result has been more than bad reporting that inaccurately portrays Israeli military operations as indiscriminate. This has fueled both antisemitic attacks across the West and commensurate pressure to boycott Israel. This has very real policy implications, leading to attempts in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to suspend weapons sales to Israel.
Hezbollah hopes to replicate Hamas’s strategy. The terrorist organization de facto controls Lebanon, including the Ministry of Public Health. Accordingly, reporters should treat casualty claims coming from the Ministry with skepticism.
Hezbollah has long recognized the importance of shaping the information battlespace. The group operates its own TV station, Al-Manar (The Beacon), which routinely calls for Israel’s destruction. In 2006, Al-Manar, along with the Lebanese Media Group and Al-Nour radio station, was labeled a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity by the U.S. Treasury Department. Other methods are more insidious.
As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis has documented, during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, then-CNN producer Charlie Moore noted a “well-coordinated and not-so-subtle” effort by Hezbollah to manage the press via “guided tours.” Hezbollah even has a media relations department tasked with cultivating the press by sending journalists birthday cards and gifts.
Hezbollah has demonstrated that it can be media savvy. Regrettably, the dire situation in Lebanon offers the Iranian proxy ample opportunity to exploit tragedies. Hezbollah has reportedly used the Beirut airport for moving and storing weapons. The Alma Center, an Israeli nongovernmental organization, has documented how Hezbollah is using villages in southern Lebanon to carry out attacks, including Russian-made cruise missiles that are embedded in homes and ready to launch.
On September 23, the Israel Defense Forces carried out more than 300 strikes on such targets while warning Lebanese “located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes, to immediately move out of harm’s way.”
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Unfortunately, thanks to Hezbollah’s use of human shields, many civilian casualties are indeed likely. The press, however, should note who is ultimately responsible while treating claims by Hezbollah-controlled ministries with the skepticism that they deserve. Doing otherwise only incentivizes the group’s cynical strategy.
Sean Durns is a senior research analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis