There is something that does not come back and you don’t need an expert to understand it. For a few days on YouTube – in video sponsored as advertising – images of children of Gaza flow that smile, civilians who make the gesture of the heart with the hands and trucks loaded with aid. The message is clear: Israel would be bringing food to Gazaeveryday, “without intermediaries, without costs, in line with international law“. Yet, who lives in Gaza – or work us to really bring help – reports of a completely different reality.
To tell it is an interesting article of Tomorrow Signed by Pietro Angelo Gangi and Valeria Costa, who reveal how these commercials – spread by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and translated into five languages - are the media face of a digital propaganda strategy.
In clips, a robotic voice generated by artificial intelligence repeats key concepts like “Thousands of trucks” And “millions of meals“
“Smiles don’t lie, Hamas yes“.
But on the field, the testimonies are very different. To Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip, Sami Abu Omarhumanitarian cooperating, told Tomorrow What really happened when, after 100 days of total blockage, the distribution of aid by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) resumed: GHF):
They showed up in 200 thousand. There was nothing. Then the army started shooting. 39 people died.
It is no isolated case. On June 10, the UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini he wrote on X:
Another day of aid distribution and another day of death traps. This system does not intend to deal with the problem of hunger.
#GazaAnother Day of Aid Distribution Another Day of Death Traps.
Day After Day, Casualties & Scores of Injured Are Reported at distribution Points Manned by Israel & Private Security Companies.
This Humiliating System Continues to Force Thousands of Hungry & Desperate People …
– Philippe Lazzarini (@unlazzarini) June 10, 2025
A “private” foundation in the center of the system
The GHF, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation“Humanitarian” Foundation created in February 2025 in Switzerland by a Armenian citizen, is today the only actor who remained in the distribution of food in Gaza, after the expulsion of UNRWA, accused (without concrete evidence) of collaborating with Hamas. Unlike the old UN model – which included many small distribution centers – GHF works with few large hubs. The result? Inhuman crowd, precarious condition e constant military presence. The UN calls them “Places of death“.
One of the young Palestinians interviewed by To JazeeraAbdul Rahman Zeidan, said:
Make us hungry, but not so. My mother died as she went to get a lot of flour.
A cry that cannot be ignored.
Those spots approved by YouTube
Yet, despite the overhaul and documented accusations, those videos remain there. According to Google – which manages advertising campaigns on YouTube -. A spokesman declared a Tomorrow that, after an internal revision, to those contents. This despite existing rules against the disinformation and exploitation of sensitive events.
The investigation clearly shows how much the border between information and propaganda can be thin, especially online. And while Israel transmits commercials on “One of the largest humanitarian operations in the world”, the real images of hunger, of chaos, of despair.
In the deafening silence of the large platforms, and with the implicit support of those who allow these circular contents, the risk is that propaganda takes the place of reality. And reality, in Gaza, today has the face of those who walk kilometers for a lot of flour and dies bombed while waiting.
Smiles can also lie, especially if staged in front of a camera. Or made with ai.
