Justifying Massacres, Mocking the Resistance: How the PA Became ‘Israel’s’ Propaganda Arm

The Israeli Occupation struggles to find anyone in the world who can justify its ongoing brutal massacres in Gaza. Even its most skilled spokespeople and toughest representatives fail to excuse” its crimes aimed at eradicating the Palestinian people.

Yet the irony is that this criminal state has supporters from within the very people it targets; they spread its propaganda, make up excuses to justify the killing of their fellow citizens, and repeat the Israeli Occupation’s justifications for bombing hospitals, schools, and shelters word for word.

The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, along with Fatah and its supporters, has seized the ongoing genocide as an opportunity to undermine Hamas, the leading resistance movement popular among Palestinians. They blame Hamas for launching Operation al-Aqsa Flood and hold it responsible for the war’s devastating toll, massacres, and destruction caused by the Israeli Occupation, while refusing to hold “Israel” accountable.

Dark Propaganda

Officials from the Authority and Fatah, along with activists and writers of the same political bent, flood social media and media outlets with relentless propaganda, repeating the Israeli Occupation army’s narrative about the bombing of schools and hospitals.

They claim Hamas uses civilians as “human shields” or stores weapons in civilian facilities. These are excuses “Israel” uses to justify its genocide against the civilians. Human rights organizations and international media have repeatedly disproved these claims.

Many Palestinians see this repeated narrative as an attempt to weaken Hamas in Gaza, even if it means excusing the Israeli Occupation’s crimes, absolving it, and encouraging more massacres.

This narrative is not limited to individual activists or opinion pieces. It includes official statements by Fatah. In a March 2024 statement, Fatah blamed Hamas for what it called the reoccupation of Gaza, accusing the Resistance Movement of dragging Palestinians into a new Nakba.

On July 14, 2024, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Hamas for the war’s continuation, labeling it “a partner in the war.”

In April 2025, during a Palestinian Central Council meeting, Abbas called Hamas “sons of a dog,” accusing them of giving “Israel” pretexts to keep bombing Gaza and demanding the release of “hostages” and an end to Hamas’s control.

These Fatah stances sparked widespread outrage across Palestinian society, condemning what they saw as clear siding with the Israeli Occupation and justifying its massacres.

After one of the Israeli massacres in Khan Younis’s Mawasi area that killed nearly 300 people, Fatah leader Mounir al-Jaghoub justified the slaughter in a July 13, 2024, interview on Saudi channel Alhadath, saying that Hamas leaders hiding among civilians pushed the Israeli Occupation to commit the massacre.

“Israel” quickly amplifies such statements from Fatah supporters on social media, translating and broadcasting them worldwide as proof from Gazans themselves that “Israel” is justified in targeting shelters claimed to harbor “wanted individuals,” giving the Israeli Occupation the green light for even more massacres.

Justifying the Massacres

Activist Mohammed al-Sayed from Gaza said that betrayal has become openly accepted, especially after some Fatah supporters and Palestinian Authority employees adopted and spread the Israeli Occupation’s narrative on social media. 

They attack the Resistance, defame fighters and their families, mock their martyrdom, and some even openly call on the Israeli Occupation to continue the massacres to eliminate the last resistance fighters.

“As soon as the Israeli Occupation commits a crime against dozens of civilians and releases a photo of a wanted person, the Authority’s supporters rush to justify the massacre and attack whoever appears in the photo,” he told Al-Estiklal.

“Everyone knows Israel carries out large-scale massacres without any wanted person present. They are after a huge number of civilian martyrs. After each massacre, they look for any supporter of Palestinian groups among the victims to blame for the attack. In most massacres, no wanted individuals are targeted.”

“Even if there is a wanted person in the targeted area, in a population fully supporting the Resistance, is that a justification for the massacre? Why don’t these people expose the Israeli Occupation and its crimes instead of blaming the victims? The answer is clear: they are collaborators and must be treated as such once the war ends,” al-Sayed added.

He stressed that the Israeli Occupation considers journalists, social media activists, preachers, civil defense members, medical teams, and aid workers among its targets, having struck thousands of them. Yet after these attacks, there are always Palestinians who justify the crimes.

“I believe the Israeli Occupation runs a massive online campaign using fake accounts and bots, but the real tragedy is when your people support the Israeli Occupation and carry out its inciting agenda with more credibility than fake profiles,” said the activist.

Al-Sayed affirmed that their role goes beyond justifying the massacres; they brazenly attack every Palestinian activist who supports the Resistance, as well as the negotiating delegation, pressuring it to accept deals that do not end the war but require major concessions, including disarmament, which serve only “Israel” and allow it to return to war and continue massacres indefinitely.

The Palestinian Authority assigns “activists” to incite against the Resistance and mainly relies on some who call themselves “former political detainees in Gaza.”

After being released, many migrated to Europe and formed organized groups for this purpose. Some have been convicted of collaborating with the Israeli Occupation and trying to drag expatriates into this collaboration.

These groups operate systematically, funded by the Authority, which provides salaries for their members. They run social media pages to spread incitement and defamation against resistance figures, going so far as to target their displaced families in the south, aiming to provoke the Israeli Occupation into bombing them.

Distorting the Resistance

Activist Mustafa Azmi said there is a well-organized and calculated propaganda effort managed by the intelligence services and other security agencies within the Palestinian Authority, as well as the regional offices of Fatah and several influential families within the movement, alongside the Israeli Occupation’s efforts.

All of these efforts aim to discredit the Palestinian Resistance and frame both the outbreak and continuation of the ongoing war as its fault, simply for standing up to the Israeli Occupation.

“Leaked materials from incitement propaganda groups showed directives from Authority officers about which topics to focus on and the best platforms to use, Facebook for internal incitement, and Twitter and TikTok to discredit the Resistance abroad, especially among Arab audiences,” Azmi told Al-Estiklal.

“The very digital mobilization units under Ramallah’s Ministry of Information, meant to defend the Palestinian cause, are now echoing Israeli Occupation propaganda, working to discredit the Resistance and distort public perception from within.”

“We saw when Fatah organized a rally at al-Manara Roundabout in May 2025 after the Israeli massacres, the crowd chanted ‘Hamas is terrorist’ repeatedly but did not chant a single slogan against the Israeli Occupation, while the Authority bans any resistance activity in the West Bank, kills resistance fighters, and has even killed protesters supporting Gaza, a dirty role assigned by the Israeli Occupation,” he added.

The activist stressed that the propaganda also tries to revive Mahmoud Abbas’s ideas about peaceful resistance and security coordination, promoting peace as the only option with the “killer Occupation.” Fatah and Authority media units began recycling videos of Abbas, often mocked by Palestinians, pleading for protection and saying, “Protect us, we want peace and no other choice, and I oppose armed resistance.”

He confirmed that among conscious people like the Palestinians, such propaganda has limited impact, as resistance is deeply rooted in their minds and hearts, and its weapons are sacred to them.

“What’s tragic is this cheap media propaganda that absolves the killer, cleans his bloodied hands, gives him content translated into all languages, and tries to convince the international community of the legitimacy of his massacres, claiming they benefit those he kills, starves, and tries to displace,” he added.

Voices of Honor

Fatah and the Palestinian Authority’s attempts faced widespread public anger. At the same time, Palestinian groups and national figures voiced their full support for the Resistance, condemning the politically motivated media campaigns targeting it to serve the Israeli Occupation’s interests. 

This included some figures within Fatah itself who refused to side with the Israeli Occupation.

Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, said in July 2024 that “Hamas is fighting and restoring balance to the Palestinian cause, and no Palestinian can disown it, recognizing the group as an icon of resistance.” He affirmed that Fatah would not side with the Israeli Occupation enemy, but would stand with the Resistance in this war, as part of the Palestinian people.

National leader Omar Assaf condemned the “cheap exploitation” of Gaza’s suffering, stressing that Israeli media and its arms are trying to inflame Palestinian streets to break national unity.

Assaf emphasized that the Palestinian people stand firmly behind the path of Resistance, and any attempt to turn them against it is doomed to fail, because they recognize the Israeli Occupation as the real enemy, and know that undermining the Resistance from within only serves Israel’s interests.