Since the onset of the deadliest-ever conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement, both sides have sought to control the narrative of the conflict in an increasingly intense battle of information. The result thus far, however, has been an obfuscation of what's actually happening on the ground in Gaza, making it more difficult for all those following to cut through a thickening fog of war. Among the most notable episodes in this information war happened last month when news broke of a deadly blast at the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza. Hamas and local health officials quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike, and condemnations were broadcast from a number of regional governments and even international NGOs. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), however, alleged that the explosion was the result of an errant rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad faction. The IDF later presented video evidence purporting to show the scene of the explosion with a site of impact in the facility's parking lot that Israeli military officials claimed did not match with the capabilities of any munitions in their arsenal. The IDF also released audio of what was claimed to be Hamas fighters discussing Islamic Jihad's responsibility for the strike, though this alleged evidence was quickly attacked by pro-Palestinian commentators. With the IDF now fighting within Gaza itself, hospitals have again been at the center of opposing claims. The IDF has long claimed that Hamas utilized protected civilian sites such as hospitals to store weapons and establish underground command centers, something that Hamas has denied. Footage of Israeli forces alleged to be underneath the Rantisi Children's Hospital showed a weapons cache and what the chief IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, indicated to be a list of Hamas militants, though the list he pointed to merely showed an Arabic-language calendar with the name of the Hamas operation "Al-Aqsa Flood" above it. Hospital officials said the area in question was used as a shelter for women and children. IDF photos showing an opening on the ground near Sheikh Hamad Hospital also claimed to reveal a Hamas tunnel there. A digital investigation by Al Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, whose former ruler had provided funds to build the hospital that bears his name, sought to dispel these claims by providing evidence that the opening was a water reservoir included in the site's original blueprints, matching nearby infrastructure such as a water pressurization hatch. Al Jazeera recently came under fire when one of the network's reporters embedded in a Gaza hospital cut off an elderly man on the scene who began to criticize Hamas for hiding among civilians. At the Shifa Hospital, now the center of IDF ground operations, the Israeli government's official Arabic account on X, formerly known as Twitter, shared a video posted by an open-source intelligence account purporting to show a nurse claiming that Hamas had taken control of the site. After experts quickly criticized the video as a likely fake and hospital staff said they had no knowledge of the woman, the video was deleted. The same account had shared footage of what was claimed to be armed Hamas members in Gaza's Indonesian Hospital immediately after an explosion, but experts assessed the object in question to be a baton, not a gun. The Associated Press has also debunked numerous videos shared by official and pro-Israeli accounts purporting to show the use of Palestinian "crisis actors," a term often tied to conspiracy theories regarding the use of theatrics to stage injuries or attacks, in Gaza. These are just a few of countless incidents that have been the subject of opposing claims since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7. There have also been numerous instances of content being shared by supporters on both sides claiming to show the current conflict that are actually scenes from other warzones, such as Syria and Yemen, or even footage from movies and television series. Others show incorrect captions in a deliberate effort to mispresent translated clips. While experts, journalists and other fact-checkers have mobilized in an effort to reveal the truth, independent verification in the midst of the conflict has proven a formidable challenge. Even when claims are deleted or retracted, they have often already gone viral and continue to resound across the information space. | 
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