Military Censorship While Israel And The US Wage War On Iran
Often truth is the first casualty of war, but Israel's military censor keeps people in the country in a perpetual state of siege, which means the truth about military operations is always in short supply.
According to 972 Magazine, an online magazine run by Palestinian and Israeli journalists, the Israeli military censor “completely banned the publication of 1,635 articles and partially censored another 6,265” in 2024. “On average, the censor intervened in about 21 news reports per day.”
The “extreme level” of censorship in 2024 was driven by the genocide in Gaza and Israeli strikes on Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. It continued in 2025 (though 972 Magazine has yet to publish data from last year). And now, after joining the United States in a regime change war against Iran, the Israeli military censor has recommitted itself to hiding reality.
Al Jazeera English correspondent Nour Odeh, who was reporting from Ramallah, informed viewers that the Israeli military censor had notified the press that there were restrictions on coverage of sites directly impacted by Iranian missiles. “They would not be allowed under penalty for whoever publishes them,” Odeh said on February 28.
A similar policy was previously imposed during U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran in October 2024 and June 2025.
On June 24, 2025, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Brigadier General Kobi Mandelblit signed a “press censorship order” that required “Israeli and foreign journalists, as well as social media operators, to obtain permission from the censor before mentioning the locations of missile impact sites.” Communications Minister Shalom Karhi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also backed the order.
