Israel hiding extent of damage caused by Iranian missiles

Israeli military stopped 613 articles from being published in 2023

This picture shows the damage caused by an Iran missile | Photo: AFP

FOLLOWING Iran’s latest missile attack, the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed that 90 per cent of the missiles launched by them had hit their targets, after penetrating Israel’s “unrivalled” air defence system dubbed the Iron Dome. Even videos circulating on social media showed volleys of missiles landing in Israel with little to no resistance from the Iron Dome. However, the Israeli government and Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) surprisingly and incredibly claimed that Iran’s attack didn’t cause much damage.

While speaking to journalists on Tuesday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan even called the Iranian attack ‘ineffective’. 

However, an article published recently in the Times of Israel (which has since been taken down) said the IDF confirmed only minor damages in the Iranian attack as it was censoring/hiding the full extent of damages caused by it.

Dozens of videos have now emerged online, saying that Israel is hiding the full extent of damages inflicted by the attack.

A missile landed in a school compound in the city of Gedera. A picture of the site shows a massive crater left by a missile. The image also shows structural damage to nearby buildings caused by the projectile. 

The massive crater left by an Iranian missile in Gedera | Photo: AFP

Some images of unexploded Iranian missiles also surfaced on social media. 

The Iranian missiles caused two fatalities in Israel and left one Palestinian martyred in the city of Jericho if reports coming out of Israeli and occupied territories are believed. 

Censoring the press is nothing new for Israel. The IDF often suppresses the media in regard to national security, saying that dissemination of such information will cause mass hysteria in the country, and expose the weaknesses of the Jewish State. In this case also the Israeli military didn’t want to give away information “that could help Tehran understand how much damage its attack caused”. 

A report by the +972 Magazine disclosed that in 2023, the IDF stopped 613 articles from being published by Israeli news organisations. On top of that it redacted parts of more than 2,000 articles. This set a record, according to the magazine that has been recording censorship since 2011. 

This was the highest number since 2014, the year Israel fought a smaller conflict in the Gaza Strip. That year, the censor interfered in over 3,000 articles but stopped 597, slightly less than it banned in 2023.

It is no wonder then that Israel has fallen 15 places in the annual World Press Freedom Index in the last year alone. Now, Israel ranks 101st out of 180 countries for press freedom.