The Global Influence Operations Report (GIOR) has published a new report titled “The Gaza Information Trap: How Hamas Coercion Shapes What the West Knows.” According to the report synopsis:
Between 2018 and 2022, Hamas built a coercive system that filtered humanitarian data at its source, intimidated journalists and civil society, and constrained UN staff, creating a structural disinformation environment in which information appears neutral by the time it reaches Western audiences. Independently verified reporting from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and UN agencies document systematic torture of critics, the mass detention of over 1,000 people during the 2019 crackdown, repeated arrests of journalists, explicit UN statements that Gaza casualty figures “cannot be independently verified,” and UNRWA’s own finding that staff fear prevents misconduct reporting. NGO Monitor’s allegations—while not independently authenticated—describe additional control mechanisms such as a “guarantor system” and survey censorship. Together, these constraints prevent independent verification and ensure that humanitarian data exported to the West reflects a filtered and highly restricted information environment.
Read the full report here.
Hamas Influence Operations: The Global Muslim Brotherhood Network in Europe and the United States
The Global Muslim Brotherhood operates as a transnational network spanning over 70 countries, with Hamas functioning as its Palestinian wing according to the group’s own charter. This relationship has enabled the development of sophisticated influence operations across Europe and North America, where Brotherhood-affiliated organizations present themselves as civil rights advocates while maintaining ideological and financial ties to designated terrorist organizations.
In Europe, the Hamas support infrastructure operates through interconnected front groups coordinated by individuals identified by Israeli intelligence as senior Hamas operatives. The Union of Good, a charity coalition designated by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2008 for Hamas fundraising, continues operations through successor organizations. According to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Treasury confirmed in 2024 that this network still reports directly to Hamas’s military wing. National branches in Italy, France, and the Netherlands have faced bank closures and investigations, with Italian authorities shutting accounts over suspicious transfers to undisclosed Palestinian beneficiaries.
In the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations emerged from the Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, established to support Hamas politically and financially. Court documents from the Holy Land Foundation trial established that CAIR’s founders were part of this committee structure. The Hudson Institute documented how internal Brotherhood strategy papers describe a mission of “eliminating Western civilization from within” through institutional penetration. Following October 7, 2023, CAIR’s executive director made remarks about the Hamas attack that prompted the Biden White House to publicly distance itself from the organization.
The alliance between Islamist groups and leftist political parties has facilitated mainstream political access, with Brotherhood-affiliated organizations participating in iftar events alongside elected officials and influencing anti-Israel protest movements across Western capitals.
External References:
• The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States
• The Hamas Networks in America — George Washington University Program on Extremism
• A More Effective Approach to Countering the Muslim Brotherhood — Washington Institute
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