The conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has been going on since October 7, 2023, has had significant impact in the Middle East media due to the missile and bomb strikes.
There is a conflict between two hostile rivals in the local broadcast media regarding the reporting, analysis, and assessment of events occurring in the political and military sectors. The use of hard propaganda techniques and vocabulary to discredit each other is used by the two sides.
For instance, the Israelis call their actions legitimate self-defense, while Hamas considers them another occupation raid. What it refers to the captured as “occupation prisoners” and the Israelis as hostages, etc.
Abu Ubaida, the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, is at the forefront of this conflict. He reads out military reports and offers commentary on various scenarios. This is the alias of an unknown man who has been performing behind a mask for years without anyone ever seeing his face.
According to the Arab publication, Israel is involved in propaganda to damage Palestinian unity and project a positive image of itself in the West. It is challenging to get in touch with residents in Gaza City and the surrounding area, since the authorities have partially or totally shut down the internet and communications since the start of the ground assault.
By controlling the crossings, Israel is pressuring news agencies that have local correspondents in the Gaza Strip to have their reporting disrupted. More than 50 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7 and so far.
Today, the Arab media is concerned about the rising massive losses, as well as the possibility that the flames from this merciless wildfire could spread to other troubled places in the region.
In terms of governmental and public reaction, journalists concur on the customary narrative: Arabs support the Palestinian “just cause.” Arab powers have officially condemned the increasing conflict between Israel and Hamas and have demanded an end to it.
As the bombing and shelling continued, with the death toll growing, particularly among civilians in the enclave, the Arab media’s anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric became more intense.
In parallel, efforts to increase humanitarian, food, and other aid to the Gazan population have also increased. As a result, Saudi Arabia has begun collecting donations for the encircled Strip. The first to contribute generously were the King and the Crown Prince.
Kuwait’s Peace Society for Humanitarian and Charitable Works has initiated the “We are all Gaza” campaign with the assistance of governmental and commercial institutions, and the Emirates is prepared to receive a thousand Palestinian youngsters who are accompanied by their parents for rehabilitation. Its objective is to allocate as much revenue as possible from product sales in the local market to aiding the impacted population in the Gaza Strip.
The armed wing of the Hamas movement, which has demonstrated its enhanced fighting capability against Israel’s military apparatus, was characterized by some experts as “asymmetrical.” They extol the militants who caught Israeli security forces off guard and put Tel Aviv’s military and technological prowess to the test.
The Palestinian question has once again become a major regional concern as a result of all these developments in Gaza. Meanwhile, political commentators bemoan the fact that the Al-Aqsa Flood action has taken an excessively high toll in terms of expenses, pressures, and losses. It appears that Hamas is not realistic in its approach of ignoring Israel’s superiority over it. The analyst worries that the violence is making terrorist organizations more eager to attract new members of al-Qaeda and potentially even new groups connected to Gaza and Palestine.
However, there is no denying the belief that Palestinians have the right to fight following years of oppression. The modes of resistance, their timing, and their relationships with neighboring governments are up for discussion. Of particular importance is the role played by pan-Arab activism, especially the summit sessions.
There is an argument in the media discourse, stoked by the Gaza massacre tales, that the outcome of every Arab summit ought to be commensurate with the quantity of bloodshed by the Palestinians.
Here, it is hard to ignore the decisions made during the joint Arab-Islamic summit, which took place in Riyadh on November 11 of this year and involved 57 nations. They demand that fire be ceased immediately and the siege of Gaza be lifted, that international organizations be included in the negotiations, and that convoys carrying humanitarian supplies from the Middle East and North Africa be permitted entry into the Strip.
A commission, including eight nations, was established, known as the contact group on the Gaza crisis, to carry out the decisions made at the extraordinary summit of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The loud majority of media reactions to this summit positively evaluate its importance. They point out the relevance of the Arab axis of sustainability and moderation to the current circumstances surrounding the Palestinian conflict and its resolution.
The decisions made in Riyadh challenge the goals of the Israeli military elite and its international supporters, particularly the US, to sway public opinion in favor of their narrow interests. Instead, they represent a collective vision of various political, humanitarian, and informational developments in the region.
The writers concur that, in addition to its military, religious, and other components, the Gaza conflict has a significant media component. Majed Al-Turki, a Saudi academic and researcher, advises that media coverage of disagreement should be blunted “outside the context of the collective Arab voice.” Such a message is crucial to establishing a dispassionate, unbiased, and truthful picture of the Gaza situation in the media and on social media.
According to the Lebanese newspaper, the summit’s decisions should be interpreted as a clear and serious message to the entire world that it is now necessary to take concrete steps toward achieving a just and comprehensive peace.
A delegation from the Gaza Contact Group recently visited the Russian Federation and met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Moscow thanked Saudi Arabia for the initiative and referred to the joint Arab-Islamic summit as timely during the meeting.
Yury Zinin, senior researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”
