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IDF Spokesperson/TPS-IL on 20 April, 2025
Hamas Terrorist Posing as Gaza Civil Defense Spokesperson Spread False Reports to Global Media
Jerusalem, 8 June, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Intelligence documents seized by Israeli soldiers in Gaza confirm that Mahmoud Basal, a longtime spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, is an active member of the Hamas terrorist organization, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Sunday.
Basal, “as part of his role, serves psychological warfare and propaganda purposes,” the IDF said, accusing him of “exploiting his position to disseminate false and unverified information to international media outlets, falsely attributing war crimes to Israel and presenting distorted data.”
The army called on journalists “to be cautious with unverified information published by the Hamas terrorist organization and on behalf of the Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip in particular.”
In recent days, Basal was widely quoted accusing Israel of firing on Palestinian civilians near humanitarian aid centers with helicopters, drones, and tanks. But Palestinian residents of Gaza told the Israeli military that Hamas is responsible for recent violence at humanitarian aid centers in recordings released by the army on Thursday.
On Saturday, Israel announced it killed two Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists working in the guise of journalists in a targeted strike on a command center established in the courtyard of Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.
Experts told The Press of Service of Israel that Hamas has weaponized casualty figures by being the only source of data.
“Casualty counting is a powerful weapon of information war and most sensitive information. These numbers influence what side people sympathize with, and in the end influence political decisions,” Israeli sociologist Tatiana Glezer, who led research on the media coverage of Gaza casualties, told TPS-IL in December. “A good journalistic practice would be to cite both sides, explaining limitations in their data and the fact that both figures are unverifiable.”
However, Israeli officials aren’t always in a position to offer numbers to counter Hamas, Dr. Adi Schwartz, a research fellow at the Misgav Institute in Jerusalem and a fellow at the Ben-Gurion Institute at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, told TPS-IL in April.
“Israel doesn’t give a ‘counter-number’ because it’s impossible to know. Israel has to maintain its credibility, but Hamas does not,” he said.
At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 55 remaining hostages, 33 are believed to be dead.
