Social media has seen a surge of activity around hashtags related to the evolving relationship between Hamas and Qatar. This follows media reports—later dismissed by Doha as "inaccurate"—alleging that Qatar had requested Hamas leaders to leave the country and decided to withdraw from ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.

Thousands of posts appeared under hashtags, featuring a mix of sarcasm, criticism directed at Hamas and Qatar, and coordinated campaigns from accounts across several Arab countries. These campaigns promoted inflammatory rhetoric often laced with misinformation.

Key hashtags included: #قطر_خانت_المقاومة (Qatar Betrayed the Resistance), #شكرًا_قطر (Thank You Qatar), #خدامين_الدولار (Servants of the Dollar), and #قطر_تطرّد_حماس (Qatar Expels Hamas).

Between November 8 and 17, 2024, over 16,000 posts were published across these four hashtags, garnering approximately 2.924 million views and an additional estimated reach exceeding 13 million potential impressions. This generated over 55,000 interactions—including likes, retweets, and replies—according to Meltwater, a platform specializing in social media content analysis.

The hashtags peaked on November 10, with 6,189 posts published in a single day, coinciding with heightened debate over the alleged deterioration of relations between Qatar and Hamas.

Activity periods for hashtags #قطر_خانت_المقاومة (Qatar Betrayed the Resistance), #شكرا_قطر (Thank You Qatar), #خدامين_الدولار (Servants of the Dollar), and #قطر_تطرد_حماس (Qatar Expels Hamas) – Meltwater.

Most Influential

The analyzed hashtags included influential accounts from several Arab countries, such as Egypt, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia, with some actively engaged in coordinated online campaigns. In their profiles, these accounts often feature the flags of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and "South Yemen," along with nationalist slogans commonly observed in such accounts.

A total of 7,129 accounts participated in these hashtags. The following were the most active accounts in engaging with the hashtags:

 @SecuEg, @bntmy4540, @AlasylKma, @Abosamrah30, @yehia5yehia, @EslamNa22536322, @bassemelmassry, @nafea_2020, @tahoun71, @amlkhalil11, @SAPRAC_SA, @mirsadeye, @malakpodcast, @NaseerSourani, @JessyYusry, @01124427696ahma, @SufianSamarrai, @AhmedE68776, @MzbwtA, @SomiAsla, @ksa_2411, @Moraqeb2020, 

In the hashtag #قطر_تطرد_حماس (Qatar Expels Hamas), which featured no fewer than 6,500 posts, the account Sufian Samarrai (@SufianSamarrai) contributed 28 posts, making it one of the most active participants. Sufian’s account, which identifies him as the editor-in-chief of the banned website Baghdad Post on X, is notably active in hashtags critical of Qatar, Iran, and their proxies, while sharing positive posts about Saudi Arabia. The account boasts a following of over 200,000 users.

In his posts about the alleged departure of Hamas from Qatar, Sufian Samarrai utilized AI-generated images to amplify his tweets—an increasingly common practice among influencers involved in coordinated online campaigns.

Samarrai's Posts on the Hashtag #قطر_تطرد_حماس (Qatar Expels Hamas)

Egyptian accounts were highly active on the hashtags, which amassed over 9,000 posts. Leading this activity was an account under the name Basem Bekhit, known as ‘The Maestro’ (@bassemelmassry). Basem is one of the most prominent initiators of inorganic campaigns supporting Egyptian government policies and attacking its critics. Basem’s primary account has over 93,000 followers, but he also manages multiple other accounts bearing his name. He frequently alternates between these accounts when one is suspended or temporarily deactivated by X, so that his activity is continuous.

He actively engages with other accounts aligned with his views, which also participated in promoting the hashtag #قطر_تطرد_حماس (Qatar Expels Hamas).

Posts by the account "The Maestro" on the hashtag #خدامين_الدولار (Servants of the Dollar).

We observed the participation of suspicious accounts presenting themselves as "Jordanian at heart... Emirati and Saudi in spirit," such as the account Jordanian Mazyoona (@RedRose5916). While the identity of the account cannot be definitively determined, and its posts focus on Jordanian and Saudi topics, we noticed its notable expression of support for Israeli interests, endorsement of the Israeli war in Gaza and Lebanon, and that it asked followers about the extent of Jewish presence in Arab countries. 

Various posts from the account "Jordanian Mazyoona"

Sarcasm, Incitement, and Misinformation: What Is the Content on the Hashtag?

The content of the hashtags reflected various trends that coincided with the debate over the potential expulsion of Hamas. The posts included mockery of Qatar, taking pleasure in Hamas’s fate, and incitement against critics of governments.

Sarcastic posts were based on news shared by Palestinian Al Jazeera anchor Jamal Rayyan, who quoted a source that spoke to Reuters. The source claimed that Qatar had informed the United States, Israel, and Hamas about suspending its efforts to mediate ceasefire negotiations and concluded that Hamas's political office no longer served its intended purpose.

Yemeni, Saudi, and Egyptian accounts, which had previously been active in electronic campaigns, reposted the clip with sarcastic comments about Qatar and Jamal Rayyan.

Comments from multiple accounts on "X" regarding the news shared by Jamal Rayyan.

Saudi accounts, such as that of Majed (@SAPRAC_SA), repeatedly shared misleading information about Hamas leaders allegedly amassing fortunes. This allegation was previously promoted by Israel through posters attributed to the global financial magazine "Forbes."

In a post on the hashtag #قطر_تطرد_حماس (Qatar Expels Hamas), Majed claimed that "Qatar froze the funds of Khaled Meshaal, Khalil AlHayya, and the family of Ismail Haniyeh." He shared a cover image supposedly from "Forbes," alleging that Haniyeh, the former head of Hamas's political bureau, who was killed in Tehran on July 31st, owned $4 billion.

Reuters had previously quoted a spokesperson from Forbes, denying that the magazine published the circulated cover image, confirming that "the image is not an actual Forbes cover and was never published on any of our platforms."

The misleading cover displayed a date of October 7, 2023, while the original cover for that issue of Forbes featured a picture of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The original and fake cover images of Forbes magazine according to Reuters.

Diplomatic relations between Egypt and Qatar were restored in January 2021, following the Al-Ula GCC Summit in Saudi Arabia, which ended a Gulf-Egyptian dispute with Doha that had started in mid-2017.

Cairo and Doha played a prominent role in the stalled negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza. However, indirect skirmishes between the two countries continue in the virtual space and on platforms connected to them, most notably by the "El Dawlagiya" group for political propaganda, which is managed by Bassem El Maestro.

The news of Hamas's expulsion provided Egyptian accounts with an opportunity to promote sarcastic posts about Qatar, using it internally to attack government critics, individuals affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and former Al Ahly Club and Egypt national team player Mohamed Aboutrika, who is known for supporting the late President Mohamed Morsi.

Bassem El Maestro proudly boasted on his account about the appearance of the hashtag #خدامين_الدولار (Servants of the Dollar), which alone garnered 8,646 posts, making it one of the most discussed topics in Egypt on X.

Bassem used provocative symbols and phrases, encouraging his followers to engage in targeted operations via the hashtag. He posted 445 tweets, most of them on November 10, out of a total of 637 original posts that came directly from accounts on this hashtag, reflecting a coordinated and intensive effort.

Examples of posts by "El Maestro" on X that involve incitement and hate speech

Many of Basem's followers interacted with his posts by resharing them or repeating sarcastic and inciting phrases, as seen in the images below of posts from the "Madaniya", "Bint Misr", "Abu Samra", and "Hafid Ahmes" accounts.

A collection of posts on X reacting to El Maestro’s posts.

Tone 

Analyzed hashtags contained over 9,600 posts from accounts whose locations are unknown. This number is close to the total of negative posts (10,600 posts), which accounts for 67.5% of the total posts, according to a sentiment analysis by Meltwater. With at least 1,400 posts carrying a positive tone, it seems that the hashtag #شكرًاـقطر (Thank You Qatar) contributed to some of these. This hashtag was launched by Egyptian accounts to mock the news of Hamas being expelled and contained more than 545 posts.

The emojis used mirrored the negative tone of the content, featuring symbols like dogs and sheep, which are often employed by Egyptian accounts to insult or attack opponents. Retweets (46.6%) and replies (38.5%) made up the majority of the content on the hashtags, a logical outcome, especially considering that a significant portion of interactions from Bassem El Maestro accounts and his virtual network came in the form of replies.

Analysis of the discourse and nature of posts on the hashtags according to Meltwater.

Analysis of the discourse and nature of posts on the hashtags according to Meltwater.

Despite the fact that hate speech and disinformation violate X's policies, the posts promoted as part of the campaign remained accessible on the platform as at the time of publication of this article.