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Hamas Promotes a “Victory” Narrative for Gaza Strip War

The announcement of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, even before it went into effect on January 19, 2025, provided Hamas with an opportunity to start promoting a "victory" narrative over Israel in the aza Strip War, which they refer to as Operation al-Aqsa Flood, which began with the Hamas terrorist attack and massacre on October 7, 2023; Official statements from Hamas and its senior figures, amplified by the movement's official and affiliated media outlets, as well as during public "release ceremonies" for Israeli hostages, aimed to promote the narrative that Israel had failed to achieve its objectives against the "resistance" and the "steadfastness" of the Gazans; Hamas' media made extensive use of statements from Israeli political, military and media figures, which in their perspective reinforced the message of Israel's "failure" to achieve the war's objectives; In ITIC assessment, Hamas will continue highlighting Israel's failure to achieve its objectives and promoting the "victory" narrative as long as the ceasefire agreement is maintained, in order to soften public criticism in Gaza of the extensive devastation in the Strip. If the agreement transitions to the second phase, which is expected to include further Israeli withdrawals from Gaza and the release of more prisoners who committed particularly serious crimes, Hamas will intensify its "victory" propaganda to increase its power in Gaza and maintain its position in the Palestinian arena, even if it is forced to relinquish actual control over the Gaza Strip.
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Delegitimization

The classic Christian anti-Semitism of the European countries began to take root in the Arab-Muslim World as a widespread phenomenon in the early twentieth century. Anti-Semitism in the Arab-Muslim World is generally directed at Israel as a Jewish-Zionist state and at the Jewish People that supports Israel, so that no clear distinction is made in the Arab-Muslim World between criticism of the State of Israel and incitement against the Jewish People. Anti-Semitism in the Arab-Muslim World is prominent in Iran, but it is also widespread among other Arab and Islamic regimes.

The de-legitimization campaign is a global campaign against Israel and the Jewish People that originated at the Durban conference in South Africa. Its goal is to brand Israel as a leper state and as an apartheid state in order to undermine its legitimacy and bring about its collapse, just as the apartheid regime in South Africa collapsed. Attempts to delegitimize Israel succeed in providing an ideological platform for promoting and leveraging a policy of sanctions, diversion of investments and boycotts in a wide range of areas such as academia, culture and sports, the economy, defense and more.

The de-legitimization campaign is also characterized by organized convoys and flotillas to the Gaza Strip, protest demonstrations, marches, events marking anniversaries, boycotting Israeli goods and more. The organizers of the de-legitimization events try to attract widespread media coverage and challenge Israel to respond to them.

To manage the de-legitimization campaign, organizations affiliated with radical Islam joined forces with extreme leftist organizations, human rights organizations, and NGOs from Western countries. The de-legitimization campaign is now characterized mainly by anti-Israeli activity in the West, together with the campaign to boycott Israel (BDS). In the past, the partners in the de-legitimization campaign carried out activities such as convoys and flotillas to the Gaza Strip.