No Cameras, Witnesses Killed, Judges Targeted: Israeli Occupation's War Against Truth

Despite widespread images of destruction and famine in Gaza circulating across global media, “Israel” continues to work hard to obscure the truth and downplay the scale of the humanitarian disaster through strict censorship and manipulation of narratives.

Over 22 months of aggression, the Israeli Occupation authorities have repeatedly pushed counter-narratives that deny the deliberate killing of civilians and claim that images of famine are fabricated or exaggerated. This effort aims to confuse the facts and justify their crimes to the world.

As it faces trials before international bodies, grows increasingly isolated on the world stage, and hears the European Union’s rising condemnation of its war crimes, it becomes clear that the Israeli Occupation, often seeming indifferent, actually cares deeply about its image before the global public.

Banning Documentation

Despite widespread destruction in Gaza, Israeli Occupation authorities have recently barred journalists from documenting the Israeli massive devastation of the Strip during aid air drops over the territory.

The Israeli government has strictly prohibited journalists from filming the destruction during these operations and has threatened to halt the air drops if videos or images exposing the scale of the catastrophe are published, Haaretz reported on July 30, 2025.

BBC and Sky News reporters confirmed that Israeli Occupation authorities continue to restrict media access to Gaza and limit coverage of air-delivered aid after “Israel” closed all crossings into the enclave on March 2, 2025.

These restrictions aim to block international coverage of what is happening in Gaza, where vast areas of infrastructure have been destroyed, more than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed and maimed, and many are left starving and suffering from malnutrition in a war using heavy munitions dropped on densely populated civilian areas.

Since the start of the aggression, Israeli Occupation forces have barred international war correspondents from entering Gaza to report on the horrors of the genocide. They have sought to mislead the world by claiming that images of destruction and starvation are fabricated. However, international media outlets recently published photos and videos from inside the territory, sparking Israeli anger.

In modern warfare, the presence of journalists on the battlefield is crucial for holding fighters accountable, exposing war crimes and atrocities, and preventing further abuses. This is why the Israeli Occupation military has been keen to keep them out.

Throughout the longest war “Israel” has launched, no journalist was allowed into Gaza except for short, controlled visits alongside Israeli soldiers.

One recent sign of Tel Aviv’s concern for its global image was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding a press conference for foreign media to try to refute the images coming from Gaza.

“The purpose of this news conference is to puncture the lies and spread the truth,” Netanyahu said on August 10, 2025. “Contrary to false claims, our policy throughout the war has been to prevent a humanitarian crisis. But it’s not prevented the global campaign of lies that we have all witnessed. So in Gaza, despite Hamas’s obstacles, two million people are now getting access to humanitarian aid.”

He claimed that today the Jewish state is being marginalized and that international media are repeating lies spread by Hamas. He alleged that Hamas publishes fabricated images about Gaza and that much of the destruction is caused by Hamas booby-trapping buildings.

Regarding media access restrictions, Netanyahu claimed he ordered the army to allow more foreign journalists into Gaza but there was a problem securing their safety.

On June 19, 2025, Britain’s Sky News reported that the ongoing ban on access to Gaza is less about journalist safety and more about preventing proper scrutiny and accountability over the desperate situation there.

The report explained that “Israel’s confidence in the integrity of its wartime conduct is not matched by a willingness to allow international journalists into Gaza to witness what is going on there for themselves.”

“All together this constitutes a war on truth that is at odds with Israel's proud and oft-repeated claim to be the Middle East's only democracy and it should not be allowed to stand,” as per the report.

Netanyahu has not only spread falsehoods but is now pursuing those who expose his army’s crimes. He said he is considering suing The New York Times over what he called “fake images” about Gaza.

The newspaper recently published a photo of a starving child in Gaza and reported that Netanyahu chose to starve the population and that the situation there is unforgivable, which enraged the Israeli prime minister.

“The New York Times should be sued,” Netanyahu told Bill Hemmer of Fox News, adding, “I am actually looking into whether a country can sue the New York Times [...] I think it’s such clear defamation.”

In a statement, the paper rebuked Netanyahu, whose relentless bombing campaign in Gaza saw him accused last year of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. “Attempts to threaten independent media providing vital information and accountability to the public are unfortunately an increasingly common playbook,” said the statement.

Erasing Evidence

The Israeli Occupation does not stop at barring international journalists from entering Gaza to cover its crimes; it also targets local reporters who expose the atrocities committed in the territory.

On August 10, Israeli Occupation forces assassinated five journalists, including Al-Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qraiqea, Ibrahim Zaher, as well as Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed Nofal, by directly bombing their tent near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

With these killings, the number of journalists martyred by the Israeli Occupation during the ongoing genocide on Gaza has risen to 237, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.

The assassination was “a premeditated, deliberate, and direct targeting of the journalists’ tent, a fully constituted war crime aimed at silencing the truth and erasing evidence of the genocide.”

The Media Office confirmed that the killing “paves the way for the Israeli Occupation’s criminal plan to cover up the brutal massacres already committed and those it intends to carry out in Gaza.”

The killings came as the Israeli army prepared to encircle and occupy Gaza City. Journalists, activists, and observers said the aim was to cut off coverage of the ongoing atrocities.

Commenting on the assassination of al-Sharif, Qatari political ethics professor Mohammed al-Shinqiti posted on X, “What the criminal fears most is the documentation of the crime and the preservation of its evidence. The day will come when the Zionists will be brought to international courts, just as their Nazi predecessors were at the Nuremberg trials in Germany.”

Political and strategic researcher Saeed Ziad said this despicable assassination is merely a prelude to the larger genocide “Israel” is preparing against the remaining survivors in Gaza, stressing that the Israeli Occupation aims to silence voices before the crime begins.

Butch Ware, a candidate for California governor in 2016, said Netanyahu is fighting to occupy Gaza because he wants control over the crime scene.

“Zionists want to sanitize the carnage because they know that if international observers are ever given unfettered access to Gaza, they will find an Auschwitz on every block, and that will be the end of Israel,” Ware, a history professor, posted on X.

“Western powers are committed to enabling such an occupation because they are full partners in every last war crime.”

“They continue to throw around 60K+ as the death toll. Population-based data and public health research indicate the real toll will be in the hundreds of thousands,” he added.

As part of its plan to erase the crime scene and reduce the destruction to empty land, the Israeli Occupation army has deployed contractors to Gaza to haul rubble back to “Israel” for reuse.

Palestinian media and activists report that Israeli forces are using trucks to transport large quantities of stone, iron, and cement from Gaza to “Israel,” where these materials are recycled and later sold to construction companies.

Observers say this operation aims to maximise profits, prevent Palestinians from using the rubble for reconstruction, and conceal evidence of the devastation.

In recent days, images have emerged of Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of the Strip, and Beit Hanoun in the far north, showing land completely cleared of rubble as if no homes had ever existed there.

Israeli airstrikes left over 42 million tons of debris across Gaza, according to UN estimates from August 2024. No updated figures have been released since, despite another year of intense bombardment and widespread destruction.

In August 2024, Bloomberg reported that Gaza’s rubble could fill a convoy of garbage trucks stretching from New York to Singapore, about 15,300 kilometres, highlighting the scale of the disaster that the Israeli Occupation military is keen to hide.

War on Law

Alongside its war crimes, “Israel,” backed by the United States, is fighting to avoid prosecution in international courts by intimidating and threatening judges.

In 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former war minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories. Since then, the court has faced heavy pressure from Washington and Tel Aviv to drop the investigation.

In May 2024, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan revealed he had received threats from high-level political figures (unnamed) while investigating Israeli officials.

He said some senior elected leaders spoke to him frankly, and one told him this court was created for Africa and thugs like Vladimir Putin, not for the West and its allies.

However, these threats took time to materialize. Notably, Khan was accused of sexual misconduct days before the court’s arrest warrant decision.

In May 2025, Khan temporarily suspended his duties pending the results of an investigation into the sexual misconduct allegation, which he denied. This happened just weeks before he sought the arrest warrants.

Also in June 2025, Andrew Cayley, a senior ICC official, resigned after facing pressure and threats from U.S. officials over his role investigating Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

The Observer reported that Cayley, a 61-year-old lawyer, was leading joint investigations with U.S. attorney Brenda Hollis into human rights violations and international crimes in the Palestinian territories as part of Khan’s team.

Cayley described his time at the court as the worst of his life. “I thought, well, we’ve got to do what’s right, but the US exercises this absolutely immense power. It was frightening, to be honest. We were being forewarned,” he said.

The paper also revealed a meeting in The Hague attended by bipartisan U.S. senators, including Republican Lindsey Graham, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump.

At the meeting, Graham shouted at Cayley and threatened the ICC with sanctions and even closure.

Mohammed Emad, Director of Legal Affairs and Policies at Skyline International for Human Rights, told Al-Estiklal that “Israel consistently rejects and refutes any Palestinian narrative in legal battles, despite overwhelming evidence documented in countless scenes.”

“Israel has long sought to undermine the Palestinian narrative internationally for two reasons: to avoid being labelled a new Nazi entity and to prevent legal actions,” he said.

He referenced the 2009 British court case that issued (then withdrew) an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, then foreign minister, over war crimes in Gaza.

At that time, pro-Palestinian groups tried to get an arrest warrant for then-war minister Ehud Barak during a UK visit, but the court ruled he had diplomatic immunity.

Emad noted that the Israeli Occupation always denies any crimes internationally while simultaneously erasing legal and media evidence against it.

He added that “Israel” continues to pressure the legal process related to the ICC and urges the U.S. to impose sanctions and threaten judges.

Emad stressed that Trump played a key role in this since his first term, and his current term marks an open assault on the ICC.

The crackdown extends to international lawyers volunteering to defend Palestine and document Israeli crimes, who face sanctions, harassment, and threats.

Even legal centres within the Palestinian territories are targeted, and evidence destroyed to erase any proof that might incriminate “Israel” later.