A new wave of anti-Israel disinformation has circulated among Iranian regime-backed social media groups, falsely asserting that recent wildfires in the Jerusalem hills incinerated Israeli military tanks within the Gaza Strip. The claims, which gained traction on Telegram channels with more than a million followers, repurpose footage of the actual fires near the Latrun Memorial site and misrepresent them as evidence of Israeli military losses, reflecting a deepening campaign of digital propaganda directed from Tehran.
The incident began as controlled wildfires swept through forests west of Jerusalem, threatening the Latrun Memorial and other heritage sites but contained by Israeli firefighting services. Despite clear evidence that the fires were confined to sovereign Israeli territory, pro-regime Iranian groups quickly posted videos and commentary claiming the blazes struck armored vehicles in the Sderot area or even inside Gaza. This was followed by celebratory and theological rhetoric from Iranian regime supporters on social channels, framing the event as divine punishment for alleged Israeli actions in Gaza.
Such claims are categorically false. Israeli authorities confirmed that no military equipment, including tanks, was affected by the wildfires. The spread of these fabrications follows a well-documented pattern in Iran’s information warfare. Disinformation is strategically used by the Iranian regime and its proxies—not only to distort narratives surrounding Israel’s military campaigns but to manufacture perceptions of vulnerability within the Israeli defense establishment, often blending natural disaster imagery with unrelated military contexts.
These tactics align with the broader efforts of Iran and its ‘axis of resistance,’ which includes Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and affiliated militias in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The regime invests heavily in online influence operations as a complement to the ongoing military and political campaign against Israel’s existence. This campaign intensified after the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, when Iranian-backed digital channels rapidly escalated efforts to delegitimize Israel’s defensive actions and fuel antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The amplification of such false stories is not limited to regime loyalists; digital forensics experts have traced the coordinated sharing of staged content, recontextualized videos, and fabricated reports, sometimes picked up—without verification—by international news organizations. The effect is to erode factual discourse and reinforce anti-Israel sentiment in regional and global audiences, thus providing ideological support for Iranian-backed terror groups and increasing the risk of further violence against Jewish targets.
Israeli officials have condemned these acts as deliberate attempts to weaponize information, emphasizing the strategic threat posed by coordinated propaganda. As part of Israel’s multi-front war, authorities continue to expose and counter such digital campaigns, working with social media companies to disrupt known networks, issuing public refutations, and increasing media literacy to inoculate the public against false narratives.
Analysts note that the use of wildfires as a pretext for spreading anti-Israel misinformation is particularly cynical, aiming to exploit genuine tragedy to sow confusion and hatred. The regime’s religious framing is especially prominent, with propagandists characterizing disasters as acts of divine justice—a rhetorical device intended to draw sectarian support and demonize Israeli self-defense.
Background: Iran’s ongoing digital offensive is only one front in its broader asymmetric confrontation with Israel and the West. Since the October 7 Hamas massacre in which Iranian-backed terrorists killed, tortured, and abducted hundreds of Israeli civilians in the deadliest antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust, such campaigns have intensified. The Israeli government continues to counter false or misleading reports, focusing on providing verifiable information and maintaining transparency regarding civilian and military events.
While the spread of disinformation surrounding the Jerusalem wildfires has not succeeded in undermining Israeli operational readiness, it underscores the importance of vigilance in the global media and among the public. Israel’s war against Iranian-backed terror networks is fought not only on physical battlefields but also in the contested domain of truth. Israeli officials reiterate their commitment to combating both terrorism and the propaganda designed to legitimize it, upholding the principles of historical fact and the right to self-defense in the face of ongoing threats.
