By Romana Rubeo 
Romana Rubeo examines the role of Israeli Army spokesman Daniel Hagari in spreading false information and propaganda during the ongoing war on Gaza.
The Israeli army announced on Sunday that Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir appointed Avi Dovrin as the official spokesperson, Israeli media reported.
This comes after Zamir decided on Friday to dismiss the army spokesman, Daniel Hagari.
As the mouthpiece of one of the most immoral armies in the world, Hagari’s legacy has been marked by constant lies and propaganda aimed at masking or justifying Israeli crimes.
This started even before the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
In May 2022, for instance, Hagari falsely asserted that Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh had been killed by Palestinian fighters in Jenin. This claim, made despite overwhelming evidence pointing to Israeli snipers as the perpetrators, sought to deflect responsibility for the tragic killing of the respected Palestinian journalist.
Abu Akleh, known for her years of courageous reporting from occupied Palestine, was shot while covering an Israeli military operation in the Jenin refugee camp. Her death sparked widespread condemnation and raised concerns over the targeting of journalists by Israeli occupation forces.
Throughout the ongoing genocide, Hagari’s repeated fabrications, allegations, and the dissemination of falsified information were systematically debunked, even by mainstream Western media outlets.
This pattern of disinformation contributed to Israel’s growing isolation and loss of trust on the international stage.
Below are three notable instances of false claims Hagari propagated.
Rantisi Pediatric Hospital
On November 13, 2023, Hagari claimed that the Israeli army had found a command center “with an armoury of weapons including grenades, suicide vests and other explosives stored by Hamas fighters in the basement of Rantisi Hospital, a paediatric hospital with a specialty in treating cancer patients,” Reuters news agency reported.
This claim aimed to justify the attacks on Gaza’s hospitals and healthcare system, which began very early in the genocidal war.
In a televised briefing, Hagari said that they had “also found signs that indicate that Hamas held hostages here” and that the issue was “under investigation.”
The claim was also made to a group of journalists who were embedded with the Israeli army and had visited the hospital. Although the allegation was immediately dismissed by local health authorities and Arab commentators, it took almost a year for it to be debunked by mainstream Western media.
Last October, speaking to Al Jazeera’s Listening Post, a journalist with CNN named ‘Adam’, described the episode as “an embarrassing moment” for CNN.
‘Adam’ recounted that when CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson was embedded with the Israeli army to visit Gaza’s bombed-out Rantisi Children’s Hospital, Hagari showed him a document on the wall written in Arabic, claiming it was a roster of Hamas members watching over the captives.
However, the document turned out to be a calendar, “and written in Arabic were the days of the week.”
“But the report that came out from Nic Robertson just swallowed up Israel’s claim,” Adam said.
Al-Shifa Hospital
On November 15, 2023, the Israeli army stormed the Al-Shifa Hospital—the largest medical complex in Gaza—for the first time.
The raid left thousands of patients and refugees trapped inside the complex, while hundreds of Palestinians were killed and wounded by Israeli troops.
Weeks before the raid, Hagari began building a public case.
On October 17, 2023, during a press briefing, Hagari said that the army had “concrete evidence” that several hospital buildings in Gaza were directly involved in Hamas’ activities.
Moreover, according to the Israeli army spokesman, the buildings were built atop a network of underground tunnels, which could be accessed from inside the hospitals.
On November 22, 2023, one week after the raid, Hagari claimed in a video statement that “terrorists came here to command their operations.”
This time, it was The Washington Post that debunked Israeli claims, asserting in a report on December 21, 2023, that “the evidence presented by the Israeli government falls short of showing that Hamas had been using the hospital as a command and control center.”
The report was based on a Washington Post analysis of “open-source visuals, satellite imagery and all of the publicly released IDF materials.”
The Post’s analysis concluded that “the rooms connected to the tunnel network discovered by IDF troops showed no immediate evidence of military use by Hamas.” Moreover, “none of the five hospital buildings identified by Hagari appeared to be connected to the tunnel network,” and there was “no evidence that the tunnels could be accessed from inside hospital wards.”
Fake News About Arrests
The Israeli army stormed Al-Shifa Hospital a second time on March 18, 2024.
After a two-week siege that ended on April 1, the hospital was mostly destroyed, and hundreds of dead Palestinians were found in mass graves in and around the hospital.
In an attempt to justify yet another war crime, Hagari claimed on March 22 that the army had arrested top Hamas officials during its raid on Al-Shifa Hospital.
A photo collage released by the army showed that Al-Qassam Brigades leader Raed Saad was among the detainees.
In a press conference, the Israeli army spokesman boasted of detaining “very significant” senior Hamas commanders, according to The Times of Israel.
A few hours later, however, a Hamas security official said in an interview with Al Jazeera that “the list of detainees’ photos at Al-Shifa Hospital released by the spokesperson of the occupation army is inaccurate.”
“Some of the photos on the list belong to individuals currently outside Gaza, and other photos are of martyrs,” the official continued, noting that “three of the photos on the list are of doctors previously released by the occupation.”
Later that day, the Israeli army and Shin Bet acknowledged the publication of misleading reports, attributing it to ‘human error’.
Hagari is not the only Israeli military official whose name will be forever tarnished for providing false justifications for Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians. He is merely a symptom of a much deeper problem.
His sudden disappearance from the scene, following Israel’s failure to achieve any of its military objectives in Gaza, underscores Israel’s broader failures on all fronts—including hasbara, its officially sanctioned propaganda machine built on lies.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle. Her articles appeared in many online newspapers and academic journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and specializes in audio-visual and journalism translation.
