ICYMI: SPECIAL: How Hamas' propaganda apparatus in Gaza operates

A thousand operational documenters, consciousness-raising agents throughout the Strip - and the plan devised by Abu Obeida to stop the operation to conquer Gaza City: This is how Hamas' consciousness and propaganda apparatus in Gaza operates Against the backdrop of President Trump's statement tonight, according to which "Israel is losing in public relations" in the war in Gaza - this morning we revealed a series of new revelations about Hamas's propaganda, consciousness and influence apparatus, which until this week was headed by the military wing spokesman Abu Obeida. 1. Hamas's propaganda and consciousness apparatus included about 1,500 terrorists (in contrast, about 2 times all the regular soldiers the IDF has in the corresponding apparatuses - the IDF spokesman and the influence department). This is an array that Abu Obeida has built up over the past decade and significantly increased in strength - during Protective Edge it included about 400 terrorists, and since then it has quadrupled in size in a decade. 2. The majority of the array - about 1,000 terrorists - consists of consciousness terrorists deployed in the field - in Hamas battalions and brigades. Each battalion and brigade in the military wing has a propaganda director, a senior representative on Abu Obeida's behalf who manages the consciousness efforts, and under him are terrorists who are "operational documenters" who have been trained in field photography. In recent years, Abu Obeida has led an extensive procurement and equipping effort of GoPro cameras, camera protection kits, carrying cases and batteries. 3. Each battalion and brigade has a "publicity department" - where video editors who create the propaganda videos are located. Every video that Hamas publishes showing guerrilla operations against our forces begins there - the operational documentarian goes into the field with a camera and joins the terrorist squad, and his camera transmits back to the intelligence unit. There, the materials are received in real time - and it doesn't matter whether the squad was eliminated or damaged - the material exists and a video can be produced from it. The slogan of the formation: the action is less important - its documentation is more important. The IDF attacked those intelligence units many times during the war, but Hamas copies them from place to place - to schools and hospitals - and all that is required is a laptop with Internet communication... 4. The rest of the formation includes about 400 terrorists who sit in the intelligence units deployed in the Gaza Strip, some of whom are video editors who create Hamas' propaganda videos, and some of whom are "listeners" who listen to the Israeli media, study the trends in public discourse in Israel and make suggestions for intelligence moves accordingly. 5. Abu Obeida was personally involved in every Hamas battle procedure. No Hamas military move in recent years - in Protective Edge, the return marches on the fence, in Guardian of the Walls and of course on October 7 - would have been carried out without being accompanied by an orderly battle procedure and approval of Abu Obeida's consciousness plans. Security sources: "Hamas understands that its strength lies in the asymmetry against us, and in how to tell the story. It is one of its most effective weapons - and that is why it invests so much in it. There is no action in Hamas today that the propaganda system is not an integral part of." 6. Abu Obeida personally handled and invested in the psychological terror regarding the kidnappings: He is one of the thinkers and initiators of the kidnapping videos and their use to influence Israel's moves. He was personally involved in every video, which hostages would appear, what they would say and how they would be filmed. He also used to surround himself with hostages, so it was a challenge to eliminate him during the war and to ensure that the hostages were not harmed. In the attack in which he was eliminated this week, intelligence sources saw this clearly. 7. At the hostage release ceremonies in the recent release deal - Abu Obeida personally led the awareness efforts: he attended the ceremonies and personally briefed the hostages before they went on stage - what to say and what to do (he knew Hebrew at a good level). The distribution of the cynical "release certificates" and the horrific gifts that were distributed to the hostages at those ceremonies - were also ideas from his brain. 8. Abu Obeida recently came up with a plan to stop the entry into Gaza City in the planned Operation Gideon Chariots II: he dealt with the question of how to stop the IDF's tanks and armored personnel carriers through awareness and influence moves that would affect the Israeli government and the cabinet. He planned to do this through psychological terror moves that would use the hostages. 9. The IDF has so far eliminated more than 200 terrorists from Hamas's consciousness formation, most of them at the command level, but more than 1,000 functioning terrorists remain in the formation. They are now trying to find out who will replace Abu Obeida: probably one of the 5 consciousness formation commanders who were under him in each of the Hamas military wing brigades. As far as is known, he did not have a dominant deputy under him who would be the natural replacement. Abu Obeida's elimination was carried out after 3 failed assassination attempts; he behaved very sensitively, like all the heads of the military wing. Intelligence officers interrogated more than 30 people in his entourage, in order to understand where he was - until the breakthrough that allowed the elimination was achieved. SOURCE: Moriah Ashraf and Doron Kadosh