Israeli public diplomacy in the Gaza war refers to the Israeli effort towards bringing more favor of global public opinion to Israel and its actions during the Gaza war.
These efforts take place in the context that a week after the outbreak of the war following the 7 October 2023 surprise attack on Israel, the Israeli Ministry of Information was closed and the office's resources were transferred to the new Rebirth Administration. The role of explaining Israel's actions has been the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since then.
On the public side, the Israeli home front also conducts outreach activities, mainly on social networks, in addition to famous personalities and former politicians defending Israel, especially on world television. Prominent leaders in the world, especially in the West such as Germany, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, and especially the United States, expressed support for Israel, and even visited the nation during conflict.
In the spring of 2026, Israel quintupled its public relations budget, allocating roughly US$730 million to improve its image internationally.
Challenges
Israeli public diplomacy, sometimes referred to as "hasbara" (, roughly translating to "explaining") though in recent times, Israel has shifted away from this terminology toward calling its efforts "public diplomacy", faces a number of difficulties.
Even before the war, there were groups of anti-Zionists in the United States and Europe, more commonly found among progressive and more radical left-wing organizations and activists. Through activism focusing on intersectionality, uniting struggles across disparate races, ethnicities, genders, and sexualities, the Palestinian struggle has been frequently linked to other struggles such as that of the LGBTQ+ community and African-Americans in the United States. These associations gave legitimacy to Palestinians as a persecuted group requiring public activism for support, which in turn caused pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel bodies in United States universities to grow in size and influence. Examples of these groups include the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Several elite universities, such as Harvard University, have also supported Palestinians, often with rhetoric regarding colonialism and imperialism. Instances of antisemitism have occurred within anti-Zionist activism despite efforts among some groups to prevent this.
The 7 October attack on Israel and the subsequent Gaza war posed new challenges to Israeli public diplomacy:
Bringing awareness of massacres and kidnappings that occurred in the surprise attack, carried out by fighters involved with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to the world public. Justification for the extensive damage caused in the Gaza Strip during the war, which in addition to harming Hamas infrastructure and troops, included killing tens of thousands of civilians, extensive destruction of homes and infrastructure, turning hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into refugees, and creating mass starvation. The images of widespread damage in Gaza increased sympathy for Palestinians. Bringing to the public's attention the fate of the abductees from Israel to the Gaza Strip, both those who were released and those who've remained within alleged terrorist networks. Dealing with both resent & past statements by Israeli politicians that are seen to permit widespread harm to civilians in the Gaza Strip and in cases, judged as genocidal by several governments and organizations. Such statements include: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who described the war as "a war between the sons of light and the sons of darkness" and said that "the memory of Amalek must be wiped out"; President Isaac Herzog, who stated that "it is an entire nation there that is responsible. The talk about unaware and involved citizens is not true"; Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said that "Gaza will not return to what it was. Everything will be eliminated [...] I released all restraints"; Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said: "When we say we want to destroy Hamas, we also mean those who celebrated, supported and distributed sweets - they are all terrorists and they too must be destroyed"; Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, who announced "This is Nakba Gaza 2023". Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, in his remarks regarding the dropping of an atomic bomb on Gaza, The statement made by some politicians according to which there are "no non-involved" in Gaza.
Media bias
Foreign media outlets such as the BBC have been accused by Israel and Israel-supportive figures of pro-Palestinian bias, with sources outside Israel reporting a pro-Israel bias in Western media.
Advocacy by the State of Israel
Ministry of Information About a week after the outbreak of the war, the Israeli Ministry of Information was closed. The minister heading it, Galit Distel-Atbarian, was quoted as saying that "the Ministry of Information has been emptied of powers and is a waste of public money, and cannot make a significant contribution to the country".
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IDF spokespeople By October 20, more than a billion exposures to content released by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs were registered, some of them in Arabic and Persian. The IDF also has a partnership in the effort, when a video of horrors "through the eyes of Hamas " published by an IDF spokesperson received six million views on its first day of posting. The IDF published many additional videos and investigations. Both the IDF and the Foreign Ministry censored very little in order to cause shock to global viewers in order to prompt them to support Israel. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs screened the film documenting the atrocities of Hamas in dozens of Israeli embassies around the world, and continues to do so.
IDF spokesman Brigadier General Daniel Hagari held a daily briefing for the media, usually in Hebrew and sometimes in English when he presented important information. As the war progressed, the IDF spokesman disclosed intelligence information and evidence obtained by the fighters and the operational documentation unit in the field that included several reports and claims of Hamas using civilians and civilian infrastructure as human shields. This included videos purporting to show Hamas' use of hospitals for military purposes, and in particular the Shifa Hospital, including Israeli statements of it hosting underground headquarters.
The supervisor of the international department in Dover was Lt. Col. Richard Hecht. Under him, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner served in the reserves for many months of the war. After his release from the reserves, Lerner criticized the performance of the Israeli government in the matter of how it presented information.
Israeli President On October 15, in an interview with CNN, President Isaac Herzog showcased the document "The Captive Kidnapping Plan", stated to have been found on the body of a Hamas fighter, which details instructions on how to act when kidnapping the hostages. The writing describes that the kidnappers should create chaos, to intimidate captives through coercion, blindfolds, and electric shocks, and to execute anyone who may pose a threat or distraction. Kidnappers were also instructed to use the captives as human shields if necessary. Herzog also said that fighters were required to document their actions live, and to execute the captives during IDF attacks, comparing these methods to the UN-designated terrorist organization, ISIS.
Israeli security forces described a detained fighter's confession, saying that the Hamas leadership had promised them an apartment and ten thousand dollars to whoever would bring a hostage from Gaza, including the elderly, women, and children.
In an interview with the BBC on November 11, President Herzog claimed to have obtained an Arabic copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf from Gaza. IDF soldiers reported finding it in a children's room in Gaza, used as a base by Hamas fighters. The contents of the book included notes in Arabic written in marker. Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, characterized the supposed finding of Mein Kampf in Gaza as "an attempt to bolster the narrative that Palestinian children are being filled with hate, are beyond redemption and are thus valid targets for killing."
On November 14, President Herzog gave a speech at the Western Wall that was broadcast live to a pro-Israel demonstration in Washington, D.C., where about half a million people participated.
On November 27, President Herzog took German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on a tour of Kibbutz Bari, which was severely damaged in the initial attack by Hamas. Steinmeier promised that his country would contribute 7 million euros to the restoration of the Bari Gallery.
Ambassador of Israel to the UN On October 26, in a speech to the UN General Assembly, Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the UN, presented a photo of a paramedic's burned body who was murdered in Kibbutz Ari. In his speech, he said: "It's not Auschwitz, it's Hamas". In addition, members of the Israeli delegation distributed to those present in the hall pages with a QR code to scan where they could view the atrocities that occurred on October 7.
On October 27, the Israeli Consulate in New York screened a film documenting the atrocities committed by Hamas in front of more than 20 presidents of media organizations, presenters, and senior journalists from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal in addition to the media networks ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN. At the end of the screening, Ambassador Gilad Erdan gave a briefing to the journalists.
On October 31, Ambassador Erdan and members of his delegation wore yellow badge to the United Nations Security Council to protest the discourse against Israel. Senior officials at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Yad Vashem chairman, Dani Dayan condemned the action, with Dayan stating: "This act humiliates both the victims of the Holocaust and the State of Israel."
On November 20, a screening was held at the UN headquarters in New York showing footage of the attack on October 7. The film was shown to UN ambassadors, senior UN officials, and representatives of the New York Jewish community. The UN Secretary General was not present at the screening, despite his presence being ordered by Erdan personally. At the beginning of the screening, Erdan said: "What is the point of the existence of the United Nations if, on International Children's Day, all discussions do not open with condemnation of Hamas, which is committing one of the most serious war crimes in history?".
On December 4, an event was held at the UN headquarters in New York, protesting the UN's response to allegations of rape and sexual violence committed by Hamas. Testimonies, video evidence of the attack, and speeches, including a video speech by Hillary Clinton were shown. Ambassador Erdan condemned the neglect shown towards Jewish women by the UN and women's organizations around the world. The event was organized by Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in partnership with the National Council of Jewish Women in the United States (NCJW), the World Zionist Organization, the Hadassah Zionist Organization, and the Shusterman Foundation.
Israeli Prime Minister