Iranian Digital Warfare Intensifies Against Israel During Gaza War

On Novem­ber 12, 2024, INSS report­ed that Iran­ian influ­ence oper­a­tions on social media have dra­mat­i­cal­ly expand­ed since Octo­ber 7, tar­get­ing mul­ti­ple Israeli audi­ences with sophis­ti­cat­ed dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paigns. The arti­cle begins:

In recent years, Iran­ian actors have car­ried out a range of hos­tile influ­ence oper­a­tions as part of the Israeli pub­lic dis­course, aim­ing to expand social and polit­i­cal rifts, cre­ate polit­i­cal ten­sion and chaos, and encour­age demon­stra­tions and dis­trust of the gov­ern­ment and its demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions. Since the out­break of the war in Gaza, the Iran­ian influ­ence oper­a­tions have focused on issues relat­ed to the war…

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Key Points:

1. Iran oper­ates mul­ti­ple fake social media accounts, simul­ta­ne­ous­ly tar­get­ing oppos­ing Israeli polit­i­cal groups to max­i­mize social division.
2. Oper­a­tions blend dig­i­tal and phys­i­cal world tac­tics, includ­ing plac­ing signs in pub­lic spaces and stag­ing provoca­tive real-world events.
3. Iran­ian agents increas­ing­ly use AI-gen­er­at­ed deep­fakes and sophis­ti­cat­ed graph­ics to cre­ate con­vinc­ing fake content.
4. Hack­ers exploit war-relat­ed ten­sions, par­tic­u­lar­ly around hostage nego­ti­a­tions, to demor­al­ize Israelis and erode pub­lic trust.