Al Jazeera correspondent, Ismail Abu Omar, lost his leg after he was injured along with the network's cameraman, Ahmed Matar. They were hit by a missile fired from an Israeli drone while covering airstrikes targeting displaced persons in the Mirage area north of Rafah city, southern Gaza.

After the strike targeting Ismail Abu Omar and Ahmed Matar, organized posts circulated, describing Abu Omar as a "terrorist" affiliated with Hamas. This was accompanied by a campaign from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the army promoting counterclaims, labeling Al Jazeera journalists as "terrorists." Accounts involved in amplifying the Israeli narrative of the war developments in Gaza participated in the campaign, engaging in misinformation campaigns. There were also pressure campaigns on media outlets due to their coverage of the war in Gaza.

By mid-February, 77 journalists and media professionals had been killed in Gaza out of 99 killed worldwide in 2023, since Israel launched its military campaign on the enclave on October 7. This is according to an annual tally released by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Abu Omar noticed a drone before being hit - Al Jazeera

A Counter Israeli Narrative

Ismail Abu Omar and Ahmed Matar were among the latest journalists directly targeted by Israeli strikes. As videos circulated and Al Jazeera recounted the professional journey of the journalists and details of the attack, Israeli accounts swiftly began disseminating a counter narrative to smear the network's correspondent and photographer. They justified the "direct targeting" in a previously designated "safe zone" by Israel, where displaced persons had been subjected to similar drone attacks on the same day of the assault.

Prior to his injury in the attack, Ismail spotted a drone flying in the airspace, as per a video aired by Al Jazeera. Later, his condition became "extremely critical" after undergoing three surgical procedures, according to Dr. Mohammed Al Far, head of the American medical delegation to Gaza, prompting calls for facilitating his evacuation from Gaza for medical treatment abroad.

Exaggeration, Cyberbullying, and Israeli Propaganda 

The attack on Al Jazeera journalists garnered widespread attention, with the name Ismail Abu Omar mentioned nearly 40,000 times – until February 19 – across social media platforms, especially on sites like X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, and Pinterest. These posts generated over 305,000 interactions on Twitter, with an average daily rate of 21,800 interactions. In addition to news sites (1,400 news stories) and blogs and forums on the internet, according to statistics from Meltwater, a leading social media analysis platform. The retweet rate on X alone was around 91.7%, an extremely high indicator of coordinated and unnatural activity, and a manipulation of X's usage policies. Meanwhile, there were only 721 original tweets.

Tweeting frequency and platforms that mentioned Ismail Abu Omar

On X alone, there were over 38,600 tweets in various languages, mostly in English, originating from more than 30,000 accounts, viewed at least 6.6 million times. The tweets potentially reached a visibility of around 95 million times. Among tens of thousands of tweets on X, 3,300 accounts posted at least 3,800 tweets containing the words "Terrorist" linked with Ismail's name. Over two thousand of these tweets came from accounts with unknown geographic locations. There was a video featuring Ismail on October 7th, coinciding with Hamas fighters crossing Gaza borders. At the time, Ismail was providing coverage of the situation on the ground through his social media accounts.

After the attack on Ismail and Matar, Israeli accounts reused the video, claiming he was a "terrorist" involved in Hamas attacks.

A word cloud of negative comments appears in these tweets, with repeated use of words such as "Palestinian terrorists," "lies," "Hamas propaganda," "Hamas mouthpiece," " vest terrorists," and "Hamas massacre.

The most prominent negative comments in the tweets about Ismail Abu Omar's injury

Among the accounts promoting this type of narrative were former Israeli soldiers and accounts bearing the blue verification badge on X, along with others whose activity indicates involvement in amplifying the Israeli narrative about the war in Gaza. These accounts repeatedly shared Israeli propaganda, including many posts widely circulated since the outbreak of the war, ultimately proven to be misleading.

Most of the activity of these accounts - some of which are newly established and have a small following - focused on retweeting content aimed at smearing and cyberbullying Palestinian journalists, UNRWA staff, and British legislators supportive of the Palestinian cause. These accounts also used footage of Israeli army violations to ridicule the tragic events in Gaza, labeling them as "Pallywood."

Official Campaign

Amid mounting condemnation and criticism following the targeting of Al Jazeera journalists, an official campaign by the Israeli army and Ministry of Foreign Affairs emerged on social media, pushing the same allegations. Ismail was accused of being a "terrorist" and holding the position of deputy commander of a secret unit affiliated with the Khan Yunis East Battalion of Hamas. Moreover, these allegations claimed that Abu Omar filmed himself participating in the bloody massacre in Nir Oz on October 7th, and posted it on social media networks. These claims are false and not supported by evidence.

Some employees of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs pressured international media outlets reporting on Ismail's attack. Ilana Lank, spokesperson and head of public diplomacy at the ministry, criticized the Australian newspaper "Sydney Morning Herald," and referred to Ismail Abu Omar as a "military target." 

Honest Reporting - an organization that monitors global media performance, exerts pressure, and pursues legal action against outlets it deems biased against Israel - attacked Al Jazeera, accusing it of speaking for Hamas and likening its Gaza correspondents to "unredeemable pigs," attempting to brand them as "terrorists."