On October 14, 2023, a Twitter/X account that claims to be located in Moscow posted a fake image of Israeli forces standing with a Nazi-German flag beside an Israeli flag, with the caption “They are no longer hiding”.
A reverse image search brings up several instances of the original image, which was first published in June 2023, and depicts an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) contingent of soldiers from the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion in Morocco who were taking part in a US-led African military exercises on June 5, 2023.
The same Twitter/X account that posted this fake image, regularly amplifies and promotes pro-Kremlin and anti-Ukrainian narratives, and has recently amplified pro-Hamas messages. Despite being retweeted over 50 times, the tweet has so-far been been viewed by just over 2000 Twitter/X users. The ratio of retweets to views suggests that potentially inauthentic low-follower accounts are responsible for the retweets.
Such disinformation is intended to erode international support for Israel and the IDF.
