Tasnim News Agency correspondent Lama Abu Helo reported that Ramallah recently hosted the “Palestine Online” forum aimed at advancing the Palestinian narrative in what participants described as an information battle with the occupying Israeli regime.

It was attended by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.

In an era where digital platforms have become arenas for competing narratives, Palestinians face both the physical reality of occupation and escalating digital repression by Israeli regime’s authorities.

These restrictions, which preceded the latest conflict, intensified after the Oct. 7, 2023 Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, alongside increased content removals and account shutdowns targeting Palestinian users.

Journalists say these measures coincide with broader efforts by major media corporations to restrict global visibility of Palestinian accounts documenting Israeli occupation and suppression.

Despite these constraints, Prime Minister Mustafa praised Palestinian and non-Palestinian journalists at the forum, saying they had “created a unified narrative” and conveyed “the truth from the battlefield to the world,” turning Palestine into “a living country on the global digital map.”

Nasser Abu Bakr, head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, told Tasnim that the Israeli regime recognizes the power of modern digital media and is attempting to engineer deceptive narratives reminiscent of earlier eras dominated by radio, television, and print.

He said authorities also work to limit Palestinian voices by influencing major tech companies and by escalating arrests, legal charges, and shutdowns of newspapers, websites, and social media pages.

Censorship by the occupying forces, he added, extends far beyond deleting posts, encompassing account suspensions, reduced visibility, and labeling any pro-Palestinian content as “incitement,” even when produced by accredited reporters documenting events on the ground.

Shorouq Asaad, director of the Palestinian News Agency, said numerous Palestinian media workers have been detained for writing a single article, with more than 220 journalists currently held, including about 30 from Gaza.

She said most are charged with so-called “digital crimes,” and the real targets are those who document killings and war crimes, adding that “Israel cannot tolerate any narrative that contradicts its own.”

Journalist Fateen Ubeid said young reporters and women are disproportionately arrested by the Israeli military and security forces for actions as minor as liking a post or publishing a short commentary, with many women saying they faced charges for a single social-media post deemed “inciting.”

Ubeid said Palestinians have succeeded in presenting evidence of Israeli criminal actions to global audiences even while relying mainly on Arabic and English, whereas “Israel fights us in every language of the world.”

Official Palestinian data indicate more than 25,000 digital-crime allegations were filed in 2024 against pro-Palestinian content, with 4,800 accounts deleted, restricted, or filtered since Oct. 7, 2023, largely on claims of “incitement.”

This pattern, journalists say, mirrors the case of Tasnim reporter Farah Abu Ayash, who has been repeatedly arrested over the years and is now in her longest period of detention, held since Aug. 6, 2025 on accusations of publishing “inciting content,” and subjected to torture and abuse in Israeli detention.