Israel and New Threats in the Digital Age

IDF soldiers on patrol. Image obtained from Oren1973 via Wikimedia Commons under a Share Alike 3.0 license.

Hamas and the State of Israel been engaged in a decades-long fight over territory and the Gaza Strip. Recently, that relationship has gotten even more strained with accusations from Israel that Hamas has been trying to ‘catfish’ — defined as deceiving someone by creating a false personal profile online —Israeli soldiers to gain access to their phones. The Israelis said that the Hamas military tricked soldiers with the use of women’s photos that were altered to make reverse-image searches impossible and the photos were accompanied with women’s names such as, ‘Yael Azoulay’ and ‘Noa Danon’, according to the New York Times. The photos were not the only thing that were used: the women that were created had thorough social media profiles, used Hebrew slang over messages, and posted regularly on their social media accounts. However, when it came to talking over the phone they had to avoid it; to justify communicating only through message, the decoys said they were hearing impaired or had speech impediments and they also told the soldiers that their poor command of Hebrew they said they were new immigrants to Israel. According to the Israeli government, hundreds of soldiers were targeted by this and for the first time it was not just those serving within the Gaza border area.

This is not the first time that Hamas has targeted the Israeli government via social media. Similar ‘catfishing’ occurrences have happened as recently as 2017. But previous attempts were only within the Gaza border area and this expansion of ‘catfishing’ may show that previous attempts had been successful for getting information from the Israeli military. However, that seems to not be the truth — the Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli Defense Force’s Operation Rebound foiled the Hamas plan to gain information through the downloading of viruses onto Israeli soldiers phones. A Hamas spokesperson told reporters that the group is in ‘an open, multifront battle’ with Israel, failing to deny the accusations from Israel and showing that this may not be the last time in which Hamas tried to gain information through ‘catfishing’ and the use of social media.

This recent incident shows just how personal conflict can get in the digital age. Now that soldiers are being targeted personally, they are also being criticised for not being aware enough, with critics arguing that they should’ve seen the catfish tip-offs, such as the inability to speak over the phone. Israel has taken precautions against these type of situations before — the government warned soldiers of the danger and that said it has happened before. They even have made a poster with the sayings, ‘The Enemy is Listening’ and another displaying a woman dressed as a militant that warns, ‘Don’t let Hamas entice you!’ These warnings come as more attacks are happening digitally in the age of social media and internet relationships.

The accusations from the Israeli government towards Hamas about ‘catfishing’ are not the first of their kind in terms of a group weaponising social media. These accusations come as conflicts between states and groups is becoming more digital and less physical. For example, the 2016 presidential election saw Russia influencing the contest through the use of fake stories and statistics on Facebook. This has also happened more recently within the 2020 presidential primary election in which Facebook had to dismantle four accounts due to finding that they were spreading ‘memes’ and content created by authentic American social media users to support the reelection of Donald Trump and the selection of Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee.

The use of social media to change political view or gain information or support is not a new concept, originating during the Arab Spring. The weaponisation of social media has played into the recruitment for ISIS, the spread of propaganda and the ability for an incredibly small number of technology creators to heavily affect the world and state-to-state relations. There is the need for not only Israel, but all independent states to start taking the threat of the weaponisation of social media seriously as groups of people and rebel forces find more ways to affect and gain access to their enemies digitally.