Hamas has demonstrated superior grasp of the importance of winning the ‘information battlespace’ by publicizing battlefield successes. Their ‘info wars’ build on techniques devised by Iraqi insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI)—techniques that migrated to the Afghan battlefield. The video below by Hamas of the ambush of IDF at KhanYunis (Gaza) has circulated widely. Note how cameras were methodically situated to capture—and probably broadcast to a receiver—the ambush of Israeli infantry and armor. Videos tell the global audience that Hamas is alive; this gives them hope that the Palestinian cause will not disappear in the rubble of Gaza.
Iraq
Iraqis and AQI set up cameras at ambushes, usually for IED or VBIED strikes. Videos of U.S. Army vehicles and personnel being hit were supplied to TV networks and posted online, but online reach was limited; it was before Instagram, etc. (IG began 2010, Telegram 2013, TikTok 2016). Videos served to recruit, and to satisfy Muslims angered by post-9/11 policies: Afghanistan, Iraq War, Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, rendition, torture, black sites, etc.
Afghanistan
The Afghanistan insurgency was low key into 2005. But with inflows of experienced Iraqi combatants, including ca. 1,000 AQ fighters, Taliban’s TTPs changed. IED & VBIED attacks went from a few per month to 200 per month in March 2006, plateauing at 1,000/month. Taliban’s info wars improved markedly. NATO/ISAF’s equivalent of the ‘five o’clock follies’—press briefings in Vietnam—could not keep pace with Zabiullah Mujahid and his team. Taliban owned the radio waves, Telegram, Twitter, etc. Clever messaging delivered through evolving info tech.
Gaza
Hamas is doing the same. Their info wars offer satisfaction to hundreds of millions of global Muslims horrified by the slaughter and destruction in Gaza; and callousness of western political elites. AI translation gives non-Arabic speakers access to content. Hamas is proving that the resistance is thriving and inflicting heavy casualties on a reviled enemy. The humiliation of IDF can be enjoyed by Muslims from Morocco to Malaysia.
Perspectives 