A former member of the Israeli military spokesperson's unit has admitted that the army manipulated the truth regarding its genocidal war across Gaza and the occupied West Bank, detailing her direct role in curating and altering information released to the press.
Ayelet Kroizer stated that innocent Palestinians were routinely labelled "terrorists", with official statements tailored deliberately to rally domestic backing and secure international legitimacy for its genocidal war.
Kroizer made the revelations in a public statement on the X platform whilst announcing her appointment as spokesperson for Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organisation that documents veterans' testimonies on military abuses in the occupied territories.
"During my service, I manipulated the details released to the media. I saw how the word 'terrorist' was attached even to innocent Palestinians and how statements were tailored to the target audience and the objective set for it," she wrote.
'PR agency' approach to civilian casualties
Kroizer noted that her service exposed her not only to conditions on the ground but to how the army chose to portray them.
She accused the spokesperson’s unit of managing facts like a public relations firm rather than a public institution.
When addressing Israeli society, the unit's goal was to enhance confidence in the armed forces, with "the public’s right to know was secondary at best," whilst foreign statements sought to manufacture legitimacy: "Here, too, the price was the truth."
She detailed how mass casualty announcements were paired with standard disclaimers: "I learned how to report dozens of deaths in a single strike and automatically add that we regret any harm to uninvolved people.
That was the routine of my service... I had never been good at staying silent in the face of injustice, but here I was being asked to do PR for it."
Kroizer, who was raised in an ultra-Orthodox community, waived her exemption three years ago to enlist during the war, believing she was defending the country.
Urging other veterans to speak out, she wrote: "If you served during the war, don't stay silent either."
Since October 2023, Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has killed over 74,000 Palestinians, wounded upwards of 175,000, and destroyed around 90 percent of civilian infrastructure.
