Israeli military unit ‘tasked with smearing and targeting Gaza journalists’

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.

For instance, on 17 October 2023, an explosion hit Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City. The Gaza health ministry announced it was caused by an Israeli air strike and killed more than 500 Palestinians, while Israel blamed a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket.

The following day, the Legitimisation Cell released a phone call recording of so-called “Hamas operatives” suggesting that the explosion may have been caused by a misfire from the Palestinian group.

However, according to +972, the speaker quoted in the phone call recording was a Palestinian human rights activist who “insisted he had never been a Hamas member”, and was having a “benign conversation with another Palestinian friend.”

A 2024 investigation by Forensic Architecture investigating the cause of the strike disputed Israel’s claim, instead finding that the explosion was likely caused by an Israeli interceptor rocket.

Israel has systematically targeted and struck Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure since October 2023. On Wednesday, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff member stated that there is “not one fully functioning” state hospital left in Gaza.

In October 2024, the Israeli military named six Palestinian journalists in Gaza as targets, claiming they were involved in militant groups. The list included Sharif and another prominent Al Jazeera journalist, Hossam Shabat, who was assassinated in March of 2025.

Israel has targeted and killed at least 238 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since October 2023, according to local authorities.