Israeli government uses old footage in new advert accusing Hamas of 'terrorist rampage' during ceasefire
New 'Freedom Not Terror' ad campaign targeting U.S. viewers may reveal future focus of Israeli authorities as narrative around Gaza war shifts
The Israeli government has begun a new advertising campaign from newly-created, non-governmental social media accounts, accusing Hamas of “choosing terror” amid the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Titled ‘Freedom Not Terror’, the new campaign is targeting viewers in the United States and promotes various talking points, including the recent executions by Hamas of so-called ‘collaborators’, who are widely believed to be from rival clans — some of whom were Israeli-backed.
While some of the videos are being hosted on newly-created social media accounts that are not immediately identifiable as government-affiliated, paid ads using this content are being run by the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, LAPAM, on Google platforms, the Google Ads Transparency Center shows.
In September, Eurovision News Spotlight reported on documents showing an engagement between the Israeli government and Google worth almost €40 million for six months’ of advertising.
Analysing the new campaign
The new ‘Freedom Not Terror’ brand includes an X account, a video used for YouTube ads and a website. On the website, a text box reads: “Hamas continues their reign of terror, killing their own people in the streets of Gaza.”
The website continues: “America’s peace plan was immediately embraced by Israel. European and Arab countries joined. A ceasefire was put in place. Hostages -- many abused and starved -- returned to Israel. But now the world is seeing that Hamas is using the peace plan’s ceasefire to go on a terrorist rampage. Mass executions of their own people in the street, in cold blood. Random killings. Repression.”
The language is one-sided. Both Israel and Hamas agreed to the ceasefire, and U.S. officials have been cited in American media outlets as expressing concern that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would try to dismantle the fledgling peace deal.
The “Freedom Not Terror” X account, which includes in its description that it’s “Distributed by LAPAM”, was created on August 26, 2025, but only started posting on October 22. Among its followers, some describe themselves as “Patriotic Conservative” or “UltraMAGA”, while others bore the hallmarks of being fake accounts or bots. Many of these bot followers appeared to have been later purged, and were not visible several days into the campaign.
The main website for the campaign primarily features news reports that reference the recent executions that have taken place in the Gaza Strip, videos of which have been verified. Hamas has confirmed it is cracking down on so-called “collaborators” and “lawlessness”, seeking to reassert control over the Gaza Strip.
The new website has been set up under a ‘dot org’ domain name, and its connection to the Israeli government is not immediately clear. The only reference is a small box at the bottom, near the site’s Privacy Policy link, which says: “Paid for by LAPAM”.
The site’s Privacy Policy outlines how LAPAM collects cookies and IP data to generate analytics about the website’s traffic, which is standard. It also gives the site owner’s location as “9 Ahad Ha’Am Street, HaShalom Bldg., 15th floor, Tel Aviv, Israel 65251” but says the servers for the site are located in the United States, where “our central database is operated”.
The Google Ads Transparency Center shows that the accompanying video has been used as an advertisement across Google platforms in the United States since October 21. Five days after upload, the video had over 7,000 views despite being ‘unlisted’ and not publicly visible. Most of these views can be accounted for due to the video’s use as a YouTube ad.
Video depicting Hamas terror features old footage
The video on the Freedom Not Terror YouTube page is just 15 seconds long, designed to be used in its entirety as a Youtube ad. It features several short clips, beginning with Donald Trump and other world leaders at the peace summit in Sharm El-Sheikh earlier this month.
There is a quick succession of clips featuring Hamas fighters in uniform and a large gathering of people holding Palestinian and green Hamas flags. There is no evidence of any large gatherings with hundreds of flags and stewards wearing yellow vests since the October 2025 ceasefire.
The clip of this large gathering can be confirmed as old. Similar footage can be found here, where it is described as showing a march to mark the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Hamas movement. It was filmed on December 14, 2022. More images from the same event can be seen here, where the same signs can be seen commemorating dead militants and the same people are identifiable between the footage and news pictures.
The video’s onscreen text and voiceover refers to Hamas carrying out “Mass executions of their own people in the street” and “random killings”. Verified analysis of videos showing recent executions has shown that the brutal executions in Gaza have not been random or indiscriminate: Hamas is known to be targeting dissent, particularly rival clans and gangs who are in a struggle to take control of the enclave from the militant group.
Some of these groups have been backed by Israel, which is seeking to undermine Hamas’ authority in Gaza. Hamas has confirmed it is cracking down on “collaborators”, and the group and its supporters have insisted that the executions were carried out after judicial proceedings where they were found guilty. According to news reports, the Palestinian Tribal Committee — which is the largest assembly of clans — has supported the Hamas crackdown on alleged criminals (Abu Shabab’s Popular Forces, for example, has been involved in the looting of aid).
News of the executions reached U.S. President Donald Trump, who initially told reporters that Hamas “did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad”, adding “that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s okay. A couple of very bad gangs.”
However, he posted a warning for the militant group on Truth Social on October 21. “Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and ‘straighten our Hamas’ if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us,” he wrote.
He then urged Israel to show restraint, writing: “I told these countries, and Israel, ‘NOT YET!’ There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right. If they do not, an end to Hamas will be FAST, FURIOUS, & BRUTAL!”
After the warning from Trump, Hamas reportedly told Arab mediators that it would stop carrying out public executions. Mediators had argued that any similar actions could give Israel an excuse to resume fighting, the Wall Street Journal reported.
New chapter in conflict
A brief breakdown in the ceasefire last weekend saw Israel launch a series of deadly strikes across Gaza. It came after two IDF soldiers were killed in a Rafah explosion, an attack Israel blamed on Hamas, accusing the group of breaking the ceasefire. According to Israeli sources, Hamas fighters emerged from tunnels and attacked an IDF excavator with RPGs, while snipers opened fire on a second excavator, injuring two.
However, the truth of that incident was never confirmed. Rafah has been occupied by Israeli forces for months, and Hamas denied responsibility, saying it had not had contact with its fighters in that area since communications were cut off in March. The armed wing of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, released a statement saying it was committed to upholding the ceasefire and adding: “We have no knowledge of any incidents or clashes taking place in the Rafah area, as it is part of the red zones under the occupation’s control. Communication has been completely cut off with the remaining units of ours there since the resumption of the war in March of this year. We have no information on whether they have been martyred or are still alive since that time.”
Throughout the year, aid agencies including the UN have also raised the issue of the large amounts of unexploded ordnance left behind in Gaza after two years of Israeli bombardment.
There are other groups operational in southern Gaza, including the Popular Forces led by Yasser Abu Shabab, which has been accused of co-operating with the Israeli military. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted in the summer to arming and supporting opposition militias in Gaza, as part of an effort to fight Hamas influence in the enclave.
On October 21, Abu Shabab posted a video on Facebook showing himself and some members of the clan driving and drifting in the area controlled by the militia, in a Maverick X3 XRC Turbo RR off-road vehicle. Geolocation of the footage showed it was filmed beyond the “Yellow Line” in an area controlled by Israel. The Yellow Line is a demarcation line to which the military withdrew under the terms of the current ceasefire, extending from south of northern Gaza down to the outskirts of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Palestinians who have approached the Yellow Line since it was instated have come under fire, and Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, put out a message that any Hamas fighters found in an IDF-controlled area must leave immediately.
Although Hamas agreed to the new peace plan, it does have tough conditions for the militant group that has up to now governed Gaza, including that they must decommission their weapons or leave Gaza altogether. However, the first phase of the plan does not set out a clear timeline for this.
A White House article giving details of the 20-point plan lays out some of the conditions. “Once all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries,” the plan says. On the supply of goods into the Strip, “Upon acceptance of this agreement, full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip,” the plan states. Not all of the hostages’ remains have been returned to Israel yet — a point which has led Israel to continue the closure of the Rafah aid route until further notice.
Laying the groundwork for next phase
Eurovision News Spotlight has been tracking Israel’s international network of influence, in particular how it uses the government advertising agency to promote its talking points abroad — even as an independent UN commission found it was committing genocide in Gaza and a famine was declared by the IPC.
Although it’s not unusual for states like Israel to campaign against regional adversaries, the advertisements run by the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, LAPAM, are usually a strong indication of the agenda the country and its supporters are aiming to set internationally. It also reiterates the importance Israel puts on its image in the United States, on which it relies for support amid its war on Gaza.
The new coordinated ad campaign erases the role of the Palestinian side in agreeing to the peace deal, and frames it as a joint U.S.-Israeli endeavour. (It is not the first time the Israeli government has framed the newest ceasefire in this way; Netanyahu recently used AI to show himself standing by Trump as the American president received the Nobel Peace Prize.) The ad also shows the fresh focus for Israel, which had previously promoted a denial of famine in the Gaza Strip and heavy criticism of different arms of the United Nations.
Now that all the living hostages have been returned from Gaza, a new narrative around the war and any further potential Israeli action in the territory is being shaped. Even if the tentative peace holds past the first few fragile weeks, this latest information campaign by the Israeli government may indicate a laying of the groundwork for the next turn in this long-running story.
SOURCES
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