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The ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict has triggered a parallel war on social media in Arab nations with pro-Palestine accounts circulating copy-cat message about “rape” of Israeli soldiers by “Indian mercenaries” in Gaza.

In an analysis, India Today’s Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) team found a network of X (formerly Twitter) users spreading old and unrelated pictures of female reservists of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as part of a disinformation campaign to apparently fuel anti-Indian sentiments in the Middle East.

The fake messages were largely circulated in Arabic, barring a few posts in English.

The war, which broke out after the militant group’s deadly October 7 attack on Israeli towns, has seen many such disinformation campaigns driven by different ideological and interest groups in an attempt to sway public opinion. Rumours, unverified and imaginary stories, and fake news are an essential part of such online efforts.

The India-centric smear campaign was predominantly driven by sock puppet accounts – online identities created to manipulate public opinion in favour of an interest group.

Many of these accounts dug out a photo from 2016 to claim that an IDF soldier was raped by three “Indian mercenaries” inside a camp in Gaza Beach or Al-Shati. They en-mass circulated a photo that was originally published on Izismile.com in an article titled “Beautiful Military Girls of Israel”.

Rape of women soldiers fighting alongside the IDF troops in Gaza seems to be a broader theme of many of the pro-Palestine disinformation campaigns.

Several posts also alleged rape of a Chinese soldier by five of her colleagues. The picture of the allegedly rape survivor in this case was extracted from an article published in 2023 that described her journey of joining the IDF.

Many campaign participants have accused Israeli soldiers of violating their female colleagues in the army. No such incident has been observed by outlets pro-actively covering various aspects of the war.

Ironically, many of the women featured in this disinformation campaign as “victims” looked unaware of the fake messages and actively posted pictures and videos on their Instagram accounts. For instance, an IDF reservist who goes by the name ‘Orin Julie’, was passed on as ‘Cinderella Shalom’ and described as a survivor of gang-rape. Her photo was taken from a 2018 article. She is currently active on social media, but has made no allegation of rape.

WHO ARE THESE CAMPAIGNERS?

Majority of participants regularly post content in support of the Palestinians – in Arabic language. They have promoted pro-Hamas events and criticised Israel and its supporters.

Apart from sock puppet accounts, the campaign also features some influencers with large follower bases on X. Among them is user @rozangops who identifies herself as a Yemini Jewish. Many Arabic language news websites have described as a human right activist. A key influencer of this disinformation campaign, she posted actively amplified allegations of rape within the Israeli army and sought to question its morality.

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