Introduction
War broke out between Israel and Iran on 13 June, following decades of reciprocal threats and proxy wars. The conflict began with Israeli attacks on dozens of Iranian targets, with the declared goal of destroying the country’s nuclear facilities. The strikes hit targets including nuclear and military sites, and were soon accompanied by clinical assassinations of Iranian military and security leaders, including the military’s Chief of Staff and the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), along with approximately 20 nuclear leaders and scientists, many of whom were killed in their homes as part of an pre-planned intelligence operation by Israel’s Mossad, which brought Israeli drones into Iran where they were assembled and deployed.
Iran responded with a military operation consisting of ballistic missile and drone strikes which targeted military and intelligence sites, scientific facilities, and residential areas. On the night of 22 June, the United States entered the conflict directly, carrying out an airstrike with stealth bombers which targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
While Iran and Israel have been engaged in a war of disinformation for decades, this episode marked both a clear shift in the course of the conflict and a significant milestone in the formation of a new generation of disinformation wars, in a fluid and turbulent political and technological environment.
These new information wars, waged in the digital world and the environment of artificial intelligence (AI), have precipitated a radical shift in the nature of conflicts and the management of interests between states, entities, and groups. Belligerents no longer rely solely on media and intelligence operations to influence public opinion but are also increasingly resorting to advanced technologies such as new media methods that deploy AI, algorithms, and cyberattacks.
The aim of information warfare is to achieve superiority in the domain of information, in order to shape perceptions of a conflict among both domestic and foreign audiences.[1] Such campaigns are linked to what has been called Fifth Generation Warfare (5GW); and aims in large part to control the media and information narrative around the war, along with psychological manipulation and attempts to steer public opinion.[2]
This paper addresses the current evolving situation, seeking to trace the evolution of information warfare and disinformation in the context of the Iranian-Israeli confrontation, focusing on the methods adopted by both sides in managing this conflict. It is based on a qualitative analysis of patterns of media practices, based on the available information. It offers an initial reading of media and propaganda as a pivotal dimension of contemporary information warfare.
[1] Ivan Chernyakhovsky & V. Aleshchenko, “Psychological Aspects of the Information War,”
Military-Special Sciences, vol. 50, no. 2 (2022), pp. 27-31.
[2] Tamta Cheishvili & Tination Kostava, “Information War - International Security Dilemma in the Modern World,” Globalization and Business, vol. 9, no. 17 (June 2024), pp. 98-101.
