Israeli Censorship of the Iran War
The Grayzone has geolocated the underground bunker of an important military command and control center nestled within a densely populated Tel Aviv neighborhood. Known as ‘Site 81,’ the U.S.-built facility houses a hyper-secretive intelligence base. Source
This is more true within Israel itself – with its own citizens – than for broader circulation. Almost everything about the war is forbidden inside Israel, except for cheerful propaganda about how Israel and the US have killed more Iranians or destroyed more Iranian assets. The government passed new legislation (not that it was necessary, because censorship has always been powerful and ubiquitous in Israel) restricting the dissemination of war news to items submitted and approved in advance. And this was under threatened penalties of five years in prison for disobedience.
“Two persons were injured and, sadly, one person died.”
The level to which this was (and still is) taken, was often so extreme that it drew only laughter and ridicule. As an example, I was watching an Israeli TV broadcast that briefly covered a missile strike in Tel Aviv. The target was an apartment or office building that appeared to have been about 20 stories high, and which was totally demolished. A quick glance made it obvious that no one who had been in the building at the time of impact, could possibly have survived. In the television broadcast, the female reporter was facing a camera with this destroyed building in the background. The coverage was only seconds long, and the reporter’s last words were “Two persons were injured and, sadly, one person died.”
This was the only broadcast inside Israel, on war damage, that I found. There were probably some others similar, but this one was unique because it actually showed the damage. In most cases, no pictures of war damage were permitted to be broadcast. Or, they will film the rubble on the street but not the collapsed building from which the rubble came, in reality giving no information and permitting no conclusions. Reference might be made to a strike from an Iranian missile, but with no photographic evidence and, in every instance I saw, it was followed with comments like these:
– “The missile landed in an open space, and there was no damage.”
– “The Iranian missile killed two Palestinians.”
– “The Iranian missile killed two foreigners who were in the vicinity.”
– “Iranian cluster bombs kill foreign worker in Israel, 3 Palestinian women in W. Bank [1]
– “Iranian Missiles Kill Three Palestinians in West Bank, One Man in Israel [2]
– “Missile from Iran landed in open area, no injuries reported.” [3]
– “No injuries reported in latest Iranian missile attack.” [4]
– “Three Lightly Wounded After Iranian Missile Hits Several Sites in Central Israel.” [5]
And to underscore the point:
– “Claims of Israeli missile killing Palestinians are absolute lies.” [6]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel, October 1, 2024: “They will understand, whoever
attacks us — we will attack him.” Source
When Iran launched its most powerful strike on Israel in 2024, thousands of casualties were reported among soldiers, sparking massive internal protests and leaving Israel completely overwhelmed. The video was shocking. The pattern is always the same. Israel was attacking Iran, with Iran retaliating. And how did the Jewish media report this? The Times of Israel told us, “The IAF, along with the US and Jordan, intercepted most of the projectiles. One Palestinian was killed (in the West Bank!!) and two Israelis were injured by falling shrapnel and debris that had caused damage and started fires in the area. The IDF said no harm was done to the ‘competence’ of Air Force (since the missiles targeted military bases). However, Prime Minister Netanyahu said the strike on Israel was “thwarted thanks to Israel’s air defense system, which is the most advanced in the world”, and warned Tehran that it had made “a big mistake” and “will pay for it”. [7]
However, the Times report was conflicted in several ways. For one, it said, “Iran fired a massive salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel, sending almost 10 million people into bomb shelters“. The total population of Israel is only 10 million, consisting of 8 million Jews and 2 million Arabs. We should then conclude that Iran’s attack was so massive that more than the entire population of Israel sought safety in bomb shelters. Secondly, the article included the news that Iran fired more than 180 missiles, but that the attack was “largely unsuccessful” because the IDF intercepted most of them. All the “projectiles and interceptors exploded in the skies above” Israel. No worries. But the article also said the missile barrage was sufficiently massive that “Explosions could be heard across much of Israel, from Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. Reporters on state television lay flat on the ground during live broadcasts.”
My thought on reading this news was that if (1) Israel experienced a missile barrage that sent 10 million people to bomb shelters, and (2) that the explosions could be heard throughout the entire country and even in Jordan, and (3) that the attack was so frightening that the staff of all Israel’s TV stations stopped broadcasting and lay flat on the floor, and (4) that this massive barrage caused only three casualties, then maybe the Jews really are god’s chosen people. And if you believe that, I have some swampland in Peru I want to sell you.
Israel’s accusations of UN bias and antisemitism date back decades, but the rift has intensified since Hamas’ October 7 attacks in the country’s south killed about 1,200 people and launched the war in Gaza. Israel’s offensive against the militant group has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters, but that a little more than half were women and children. Source
For your entertainment, IDF spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani said Iran wants to “terrorise the citizens of Israel. There are international treaties that prohibit the use of these weapons against civilians.” Uh huh. Just as there are “international treaties against genocide, against military aggression, against using white phosphor munitions, against bombing hospitals….. But suddenly the Jews want to hide behind international treaties. If you want something else to make you laugh, Israel has banned UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres from entering its territory because it claims he has not “unequivocally condemned” Iran’s retaliation to Israel’s unprovoked “decapitation” attack.
Itamar Ben-Gvir who has proposed the ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ for Palestinian detainees near the occupied Hamat Gader, a hot springs resort in northern ‘Israel’ that already contains a controlled alligator habitat. In June 2024, he publicly said that Palestinian prisoners should be “shot in the head”, and called for them to receive only minimal sustenance until a death-penalty statute is passed. In another provocative statement in April 2024, he argued that the “right solution” to overcrowding in Israeli occupation prisons is executing Palestinian “terrorists”. Source
Foreign media are now required to obtain prior military censorship approval before filming missile impact and crash sites. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned that any broadcast from war zones without proper authorisation would be considered a criminal offense, and thus subject to potentially five years in prison. According to Ben-Gvir, the ‘Anarchy of Foreign Media Is Over’, and foreign media’s war coverage will now be subject to military Censorship. [8]
Mis-stating the real objectives is a standard Jewish template for telling lies and spreading misinformation: We didn’t attack Iraq to get its oil; we did it to remove a brutal dictator and free the people. In the current context, according to the Israeli government, it isn’t war coverage that is being censored, but rather the “foreign press” are behaving in a criminal fashion and we must restrict them in the name of national security. The censorship is further camouflaged by confronting journalists and claiming that the live footage they are broadcasting, immediately appears “on Al Jazeera screens globally”. And naturally anything that might appear on Al Jazeera is evil and must be prohibited. And, to show that we are “fair”, enforcement of the new directive will apply regardless of the media outlet doing the filming. Of course, we apply the same directive to the domestic media, but we don’t state that, and few people know that we are indeed heavily censoring all war coverage.
The Jerusalem Post gleefully tells us that when police or military arrive at a missile impact site, they immediately confiscate all camera equipment. This censorship is so serious a matter that the police even hunt down journalists. The same Jerusalem Post article tells us “the police knocked on the door of a hotel room where two foreign photographers were staying, and confiscated their equipment”. These confiscations are necessary because, to cite a recent example, a media group from Qatar made an unauthorised broadcast of a missile strike on Israel’s main oil refinery compound. This location was under a strict gag order at the time because the authorities didn’t want Iran to know their attack hit the intended target. Israeli media had been barred from even mentioning the incident, and then little Qatar blabbed it to the whole world. [9]
Five months ago, the Yellow Line was framed as a step toward an IDF withdrawal from Gaza. Since then, the army has set up a string of outposts along it and killed more than 200 Gazans nearby. Source
Al-Akhbar reported that “Since the start of Iran’s retaliatory strikes, Israel has intensified media censorship, barring settlers and media outlets from sharing details or visual materials. The Military Censorship Office issued a warning to all Israeli citizens, that publishing videos from crash sites after Iranian strikes would be considered “aiding the enemy in times of war”. It seems that as the media were policing the public, the government was policing the media. The Chief Military Censor, Brigadier General Kobi Mandelblit, notified all media organisations “In light of the opening blow delivered by the State of Israel against Iran, I find it necessary to clarify the subjects that are prohibited from publication…..” [10]
Reports cannot be published if they concern (a) damage on Israeli territory, (b) attacks on strategic sites or military bases, (c) weapons and defense vulnerabilities, (d) disruptions to operational readiness or essential services, (e) information on munitions, interceptor stocks, aircraft or air defense readiness, (f) international or regional cooperation, (g) intelligence sharing, (h) details on foreign involvement in defense actions. The directive specified that no visual materials, such as photos and videos, could be published unless submitted in advance for censorship review. To ensure an information vacuum, media outlets are forbidden from disclosing that they were censored, thus ensuring that all censored topics and information remain hidden from the public. No other country has an equivalent institution.
Apparently, a Fox News reporter did a live broadcast from a missile impact site in one of Israel’s most militarily-sensitive areas, revealing the precise location of the military installation – and the missile strike – to “all Fox News viewers around the world”, including those in Iran who would be interested to know the precision of their missile targeting systems. We are told that “security forces quickly removed” the reporter who, if still alive, would probably not make the same mistake again. I do not say this in jest; Israel is the world leader in executing journalists, nearly 300 in the years 2023-2026. Al-Akhbar said the censorship climate has reached unprecedented levels and become so pervasive that some media outlets began policing their peers. The example provided was that the Jewish news outlet Ma’ariv outed the Fox News journalist.
The Palestine Chronicle reported that journalists cannot film destruction sites or any destruction caused by Iranian strikes, and are forbidden access to hospitals that might containing injured personnel or dead bodies. One Indian journalist said “The (Israeli) government will not tell you anything, and when a [missile strike] occurs, we do not even know where it happened,” he said. He further confided many credible reports that Iranian missiles often landed without prior warning sirens, “contradicting official assurances”. It has also reliably reported several times that civilians died even inside shelters, despite Israeli government assurances that such facilities would provide protection. [11]
Israel has acknowledged being hit by more than 50 missiles during the 12-day war with Iran, but the true extent of the damage may never be known due to stringent press restrictions. Most of the government’s communication during the war focused on its military successes, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday praising a “historic victory” over Iran. Source
Israel acknowledged being hit by more than 50 missiles during the 2025 12-day war with Iran, but Israel was hit with many more missiles than 50. The true extent of the damage will never be known due to the stringent censorship designed to hide the damage from Iranian missile strikes. Surprisingly, this is as true within Israel itself as in the outside world. [12] [13] In that same 12-day war, Israel concealed that Iranian missiles hit several key military sites, with successful missile attacks on air bases, a logistics hub, and an intelligence center. In this case, Oregon State University researchers tracked the damage using satellite radar. The evidence was that six Iranian missiles hit five Jewish military facilities including a major air base. The reporting in Israel claimed intercepted missiles and no damage. [14] [15] [16]
“Many US media reported that only minor damage resulted, but the secrecy raises questions whether Israel is hiding a far larger impact on its military facilities and operations, including its Nevatim F-35 fighter airbase in the Negev Desert, which appeared to take large and repeated hits. Israel has not admitted any deaths at the targeted bases, and reported only two injuries. The Iranian missile attacks appear to have been targeted exclusively at military facilities, in sharp contrast to Israel’s repeated bombing of civilian areas in Iran. Footage of Iran’s barrage of around two hundred ballistic and hypersonic missiles at Israeli military facilities on the evening of March 10, 2026, shows a majority of them hitting their targets, leading to large explosions on the ground. Despite the evidence, Israel’s military claimed to have shot down ninety percent.” [17] [18]
Angel of Destruction: A mass protest in Tel Aviv against Benjamin Netanyahu on 23 September 2023 (AFP). Source
Retired U.S. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson says Americans are being lied to about the war and claims Israel is being heavily hit by Iranian missiles. He says the situation is so severe that Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly spends about 90% of his time on a plane because he is the number one target. “They’re not allowed to film this sort of thing.” [19] Other military experts have said that Tel Aviv is being Gaza-ed, that parts of it look like Gaza. From the photos I have seen, the description is accurate. George Galloway, the former Scottish parliamentarian with an influential post in British public life and foreign affairs, said recently, “Israel is being smashed and you don’t know it… for 2 reasons: 1) Anyone posting video of damage in Tel Aviv is immediately sentenced to prison. 2) International media have accepted Israeli censorship and not showing the damage.”
The Israeli military propaganda office has posted videos of missile intercepts. A quick search of social media and Telegram channels reveals plenty of these videos, but some appear to be the same missile swarm photographed from different positions, and none show the interceptors missing their targets. In most of the videos I have seen, it is common to watch the interceptor pass by the target missile without even coming dangerously close. There are some videos that have slipped the censor’s net and escaped Israel. Many of these show a literal hail of missiles descending on Tel Aviv or some other city or military base, and clearly show the missiles landing and exploding. I have seen perhaps 100 of these videos, and only a few show an Iranian missile being intercepted. More interesting, some of the videos clearly show Israeli interceptor missiles being fired from deep inside residential areas. The Jews deny this, of course, but the evidence is real. The justification is that intelligence satellites are less likely to identify missile launchers buried in residential areas, and Iran is more likely to target military sites.
In some videos, you can clearly see the interceptor missiles (THAAD, etc.) being launched from among apartment buildings. The Jews have repeatedly accused Hamas or Hezbollah of using such “civilian shields”, but with never any evidence provided. These videos provide evidence that the Jews actually do this. It has now become legend that any accusation by the Jews is merely a confession.
DIMONA, ISRAEL – MARCH 22: : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacts while visiting the area destroyed by an Iranian ballistic missile last night, leaving over 50 wounded residents on March 22, 2026 in Dimona, Israel. Iran has continued firing waves of drones and missiles at Israel after the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran early on February 28th. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images). Source
At the beginning of the conflict, Iran used its old stock from around 2010, which consisted of simple drones and smaller missiles containing only one warhead. But as the war progressed and the interceptor missiles of the US and Israel were depleted, Iran turned to weapons much more technologically advanced. Some of the latest versions are large missiles that carry as many as 80 independently-targetable warheads. Each of those might contain only a few Kgs. of explosive, but that large number landing in a relatively confined space can do an astonishing amount of damage. One advantage of these missiles is that an intercepting missile (at around $4 million each) can intercept and destroy only one of these small warheads, and normally two or even three interceptors are fired at an incoming missile, to enhance the odds of interception. Generally, the multi-warhead missiles separate only when near enough the target to provoke the launch of an interceptor, and by then it is too late.
A view of the damage caused to a satellite station in the Elah Valley by a missile fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon the previous day, March 10, 2026. (Jonathan Shaul/Flash90). Source
One Israeli journalist wrote that “Our coverage is not truthful”. He noted that in one case an Iranian missile hit its target while fragments struck a nearby educational facility. Yet the media were allowed only to report on the latter, without being able to even mention the former. He also mentioned, as I noted earlier, that media agencies are prohibited from showing the locations from which Israeli interceptor missiles are launched. [20] This is because the Israeli government doesn’t want anyone outside the country (and even inside) to know that these military assets are located deep within residential areas where Iran might not search. The danger to the local population from such a tactic is of course extreme, but Jewish civilians are being sacrificed for a good cause. It is also prohibited to film failed interceptions, of which there are many. This permits the propaganda machine to tell us that “95% of all missiles were intercepted and the other 5% fell in empty spaces and caused no damage.”
It is distressing to see how much the foreign (Western) media are biased toward the Israeli position, going so far as to condemn Iran for retaliating against the despicable “decapitation” attacks launched by Israel and the US against Iran. The crime, apparently, is in defending yourself when chaste democracies attack you with so much justification. CNN wrote an article trying to convince readers that they were “different” and that they didn’t have to abide by Israeli censorship regulations. [21] The article is nonsense in its entirety. Mint Press News has a good article on the support that the Western media have for the Israeli side of the war. [22]
A Brief Digression
Graves being prepared March 2 for the victims, mostly children, of the Feb. 28 strike in a photo released by the Iranian government’s foreign media department and distributed by The Associated Press without changes.Iranian Foreign Media Department / via AP. Source
This is about war censorship and propaganda, specifically the case where the US targeted and destroyed a girls’ school in Teheran, killing some 185 children. You are likely aware of this because it received some media attention in the West. But there was a second part to this event that received little if any attention. First, let me tell you a story. When at war with Afghanistan, the US found it impossible to control the country because it had no central government. The country was run by what were essentially regional governors (the US referred to them as “warlords” because that sounded more evil) responsible for only a small area. The Americans then took a page from the Jewish (Israeli) playbook. They would seek out and kill one of the regional governors, then survey the area 24/7 with surveillance drones, waiting for signs of the funeral. This was important because the attendees at such a funeral would likely consist of not only the man’s family but his subordinates and, more importantly, other regional governors who would come to pay respects. When the funeral was underway, the US would then send it a Reaper drone to put a cruise missile into the middle of the funeral and kill everyone. The hope was that this practice might eventually eliminate all the leadership in Afghanistan. It failed, but not for lack of trying.
I mention this here because the Americans did the same thing with the girls’ school in Teheran. After destroying the school and killing all the students, they waited for a while with the area under drone surveillance – just like Afghanistan – and when the site was filled with parents and rescue workers looking for survivors, the US put another cruise missile into that school, killing the parents and all the rescue workers. The famous so-called “double-tap”. It is difficult to imagine anything more evil.
The important point here is that this is not an American battle tactic; it is entirely a Jewish tactic.It is only the Jews who attempt to kill all the leaders of a nation they don’t like. They even boast openly about their “decapitation strike” on Iran. They are proud of it. That was why they wanted the US to capture Maduro; Venezuela’s strong leader was preventing them from taking the country’s oil. That was why they persisted with hundreds of attempts to kill Fidel Castro, why they demonised Khaddafi in Libya, Assad in Syria, Saddam in Iraq. Think of JFK and RFK, and so many others. It is why Vladimir Putin is constantly excoriated in the Western media. They want the entire world to hate these people enough that someone finally kills them.
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Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 34 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’. (Chap. 2 — Dealing with Demons).
His full archive can be seen at
https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/ + https://www.moonofshanghai.com/
He can be contacted at: 2186604556
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NOTES
[1] Iranian cluster bombs kill foreign worker in Israel, 3 Palestinian women in W. Bank
https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-cluster-bombs-kill-foreign-worker-in-central-israel-3-west-bank-palestinians/
[2] Iranian Missiles Kill Three Palestinians in West Bank, One Man in Israel, Emergency Services Say
https://www.haaretz.com/west-bank/2026-03-19/ty-article/.premium/iranian-barrages-kill-at-least-four-palestinians-in-west-bank-one-man-in-israel/0000019d-02e2-da5c-a3bd-0ee231080000
[3] Missile from Iran landed in open area, no injuries reported
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/flashes/680207
[4] No injuries reported in latest Iranian missile attack
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/no-injuries-reported-in-latest-iranian-missile-attack-6/
[5] Three Lightly Wounded After Iranian Cluster Missile Hits Several Sites in Central Israel
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-security/2026-03-18/ty-article/.premium/iranian-cluster-missiles-cause-damage-in-several-sites-in-central-israel/0000019d-01e4-d41d-a5bf-dfed6e220000
[6] Yesha Council: Claims of Israeli missile killing Palestinians are absolute lies
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/flashes/680208
[7] Iran fires 181 missiles at Israel; PM: They made a ‘big mistake’ and ‘will pay for it’
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-warns-of-consequences-after-iran-launches-181-missiles-in-major-attack/
[8] ‘Anarchy of Foreign Media Is Over’ Israeli Ministers Say Foreign Media’s War Coverage Is Subject to Military Censorship
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-06-20/ty-article/.premium/israeli-ministers-say-foreign-medias-war-coverage-is-subject-to-military-censorship/00000197-8c78-d237-a1bf-ac7cd0ed0000
[9] Ben-Gvir and Karhi crack down on foreign press coverage of war damage in Israel
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-858423
[10] How Israel Censors Media Coverage of Iranian Missile Strikes
https://en.al-akhbar.com/news/how-israel-censors-media-coverage-of-iranian-missile-strikes
[11] Indian Journalist Says Israeli Censorship Hides Damage from Iranian Strikes
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/indian-journalist-says-israeli-censorship-hides-damage-from-iranian-strikes/
[12] strikes damage hard to assess under Israeli military censorship
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2025/06/iran-strikes-damage-hard-assess-under-israeli-military-censorship
[13] Israel Accused of Censoring Battle Damage
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-accused-of-censoring-battle-damage-during-12-day-war-by-iran/ar-AA1K5qJt
[14] Israel covered up Iranian hits on military sites – Telegraph
https://www.rt.com/news/621037-israel-covered-attacks-military-sites/
[15] Israeli military censorship covered up successful Iranian missile strikes on key bases, satellite data reveals
https://www.naturalnews.com/2025-07-07-israeli-military-censorship-iranian-strikes.html
[16] Israel Counts High Cost of Iran War as Censorship Masks Full Damage
https://iranpress.com/content/307834/israel-counts-high-cost-iran-war-censorship-masks-full-damage
[17] Israel censors reports of damage to military sites by Iranian missiles
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/10/03/israel-censors-reports-of-damage-to-military-sites-by-iranian-missiles/
[18] How Israel’s Military Censorship Hides The Reality Of Iran’s Retaliatory Strikes.
https://the307.substack.com/p/how-israels-military-censorship-hides
[19] Video of Israel Missile Damage
https://x.com/ShadowofEzra/status/2030108151069163678?s=20
[20] ‘Our coverage is not truthful’: How Israel is censoring reporting on the war
https://www.972mag.com/israel-media-censorship-iran-war/
[21] How international news outlets report under Israel’s military censor during wartime
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/06/media/israel-iran-war-media-censor-journalism
[22] Corporate Media Go All Out To Support The US-Israeli War on Iran
https://www.mintpressnews.com/corporate-media-go-all-out-to-support-the-us-israeli-war-on-iran/290713/
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