world war 1 propaganda essay

Manipulating the masses: How propaganda was used during World War I

World War I was a conflict that not only consumed the lives of the soldiers in the trenches and battlefields, but also had a powerful impact on the hearts and minds of millions at home.

This was done through the strategic use of propaganda.  The proactive manipulation of people's attitudes through the media played a surprisingly pivotal role in shaping public opinion and mobilizing resources.

But how exactly was propaganda used during World War I?

What were the different types of propaganda employed by the warring nations?

And how did it influence society's perception of the war? 

What is 'propaganda'?

The term 'propaganda' often carries negative connotations, associated with manipulation and deceit.

However, its roots are far more neutral, derived from the Latin 'propagare', meaning 'to spread or propagate'.

In essence, propaganda is about disseminating information, ideas, or rumors for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.

It has always been a powerful tool of persuasion, with the capability of molding public opinion and directing collective action.

Propaganda, as a concept, is as old as human civilization itself: from the ancient Egyptians who used it to glorify their pharaohs, to the Romans who utilized it to control public opinion.

However, it was during World War I that propaganda was used on an industrial scale.

It leveraged the advancements in mass communication technologies such as the printing press, radio, and cinema.

Governments quickly realized that to sustain a war on a global scale, they needed not just the physical resources but also the psychological backing of their citizens.

How countries used propaganda

Each nation involved in the war had its unique propaganda strategies; h owever, there were common themes and techniques that transcended national boundaries.

Firstly, and most obviously, propaganda was used to justify the war, usually to portray it as a noble and necessary endeavor.

At the same time, it was used to demonize the enemy. To do this, it would paint them as a threat not just to the nation but to civilization itself.

In a much more benign way, it was also used to mobilize resources by encouraging men to enlist or for civilians to buy war bonds.

The British, for example, established the War Propaganda Bureau early in the war which  enlisted famous writers and artists to create compelling propaganda materials. 

These were distributed both at home and abroad.

The Germans, on the other hand, relied heavily on propaganda to maintain morale during the British naval blockade.

These blockades had prevented shipping from reaching German ports, which caused severe food shortages in Germany.

In comparison, in the United States, which entered the war later , the Committee on Public Information, which was established by President Woodrow Wilson, launched a massive propaganda campaign to build support for the war effort.

Interestingly, this campaign was not just aimed at adults but also at children, with propaganda materials distributed in schools to instill a sense of patriotism and duty from a young age.

In Russia, propaganda was used to try and maintain support for the war amidst growing social unrest, which eventually led to the Russian Revolution .

The Russian government used propaganda to portray the war as a fight against German imperialism.

This was aimed at appealing to the nationalist sentiments of the Russian people, but it had little effect in the end.

Common types of WWI propaganda

During World War I, propaganda was employed in a variety of forms, each designed to serve a specific purpose.

The types of propaganda used can be broadly categorized into recruitment propaganda, war bond propaganda, enemy demonization propaganda, and nationalism and patriotism propaganda.

Recruitment propaganda

One of the most visible forms of propaganda during the war was recruitment propaganda.

As the war dragged on and casualty numbers rose, it became increasingly important for nations to encourage more men to enlist.

Recruitment posters often depicted the ideal soldier as brave, honorable, and patriotic, appealing to a sense of duty and masculinity.

Iconic images such as Lord Kitchener's "Your Country Needs You" poster in Britain, or Uncle Sam's "I Want You" poster in the United States, became powerful symbols of the call to arms.

War bonds propaganda

Another crucial aspect of propaganda was the promotion of war bonds. Financing the war was a massive undertaking.

So, governments turned to their citizens for help.

War bond propaganda aimed to convince the public that purchasing bonds was both a financial investment and a patriotic duty.

These campaigns often used emotional appeals. It suggested that buying bonds was a way to support the troops and contribute to the war effort.

Enemy demonisation propaganda

The demonization of the enemy was a common theme in World War I propaganda.

By portraying the enemy as monstrous, barbaric, or inhuman, governments could justify the war and stoke a sense of fear and hatred.

This type of propaganda was often based on stereotypes or outright lies, such as the infamous "Rape of Belgium" campaign by the Allies, which exaggerated German atrocities to gain international support.

Nationalisation and patriotism propaganda

Finally, propaganda was also used to foster a sense of nationalism and patriotism.

This was especially important in multi-ethnic empires like Austria-Hungary or the Ottoman Empire, where loyalty to the state was not a given.

The resultant nationalistic propaganda often used symbols, myths, and historical narratives to create a sense of shared identity and purpose.

The impact on society

One of the most significant impacts of propaganda was its role in creating a culture of sacrifice and service, where everyone was expected to do their part for the war effort.

Furthermore, propaganda influenced the way the war was understood and remembered.

It created a narrative of the war that highlighted the heroism and sacrifice of the soldiers, while downplaying the horror and destruction.

This narrative was often uncritically accepted, leading to a romanticized and distorted view of the war.

Ultimately, the use of propaganda during World War I may have had a significant impact on society by introducing new methods of mass communication and persuasion.

The techniques developed during the war, from the use of posters and films to the manipulation of news and information, became a standard part of political and commercial communication in the decades that followed.

The crucial role of artists and designers

Artists and designers' skills were harnessed to create powerful images and messages.

They were, in essence, visual storytellers, crafting narratives of heroism, sacrifice, and patriotism that resonated with the masses.

A well-designed poster or illustration could convey a message instantly and emotionally.

As a result, artists and designers used a variety of techniques to maximize the impact of their work: from the use of bold colors and simple, striking designs to the manipulation of symbols and stereotypes.

There are a number of very famous examples form various countries. In Britain, o ne of the most famous examples is the "Your Country Needs You" poster, featuring Lord Kitchener.

The poster, designed by Alfred Leete, became an iconic symbol of the call to arms.

Its simple yet powerful design resonating with the British public.

In Germany, artists like Ludwig Hohlwein and Lucian Bernhard created striking posters that promoted war bonds and recruitment.

Their work, characterized by bold typography and dramatic imagery, was instrumental in maintaining morale and unity during the war.

Then, in the United States, artists like James Montgomery Flagg and Howard Chandler Christy created memorable propaganda posters.

Flagg's "I Want You" poster, featuring Uncle Sam, became one of the most iconic images of the war, while Christy's posters, featuring idealized images of women, appealed to a sense of chivalry and duty.

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How the US Government Used Propaganda to Sell Americans on World War I

By: Patricia O'Toole

Updated: March 28, 2023 | Original: May 22, 2018

When the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson  faced a reluctant nation. Wilson had, after all, won his reelection in 1916 with the slogan, “He kept us out of the war.” To convince Americans that going to war in Europe was necessary, Wilson created the Committee on Public Information (CPI), to focus on promoting the war effort.

To head up the committee, Wilson appointed a brilliant political public relations man, George Creel. As head of the CPI, Creel was in charge of censorship as well as flag-waving, but he quickly passed the censor’s job to Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson. The Post Office already had the power to bar materials from the mail and revoke the reduced postage rates given to newspapers and magazines.

Creel dispatches positive news to stir a ‘war-will’ among Americans

Handsome, charismatic, and indefatigable, Creel thought big and out of the box. He disliked the word “propaganda,” which he associated with Germany’s long campaign of disinformation. To him, the CPI’s business was more like advertising, “a vast enterprise in salesmanship” that emphasized the positive. A veteran of Wilson’s two successful presidential campaigns, Creel knew how to organize an army of volunteers, and 150,000 men and women answered his call. The Washington office, which operated on a shoestring, was part government communications bureau and part media conglomerate, with divisions for news, syndicated features, advertising, film, and more. At Wilson’s insistence, the CPI also published the Official Bulletin , the executive-branch equivalent of the Congressional Record.

Creel’s first idea was to distribute good news and disclose as many facts about the war as he could without compromising national security. His M.O. was simple: flood the country with press releases disguised as news stories. Summing up after the war, Creel said he aimed to “weld the people of the United States into one white-hot mass instinct” and give them a “war-will, the will to win.”

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During the 20 months of the U.S. involvement in the war, the CPI issued nearly all government announcements and sent out 6,000 press releases written in the straightforward, understated tone of newspaper articles. It also designed and circulated more than 1,500 patriotic advertisements. In addition, Creel distributed uncounted articles by famous authors who had agreed to write for free. At one point, newspapers were receiving six pounds of CPI material a day. Editors eager to avoid trouble with the Post Office and the Justice Department published reams of CPI material verbatim and often ran the patriotic ads for free.

Propaganda describes the enemy as ‘mad brute’

For the first two months, nearly all of the information generated by the CPI consisted of announcements and propaganda of the cheerleading variety: salutes to America’s wartime achievements and American ideals. At Creel’s direction, the CPI celebrated America’s immigrants and fought the perception that those who hailed from Germany, Austria, and Hungary were less American than their neighbors. Creel thought it savvier to try to befriend large ethnic groups than to attack them.

But after two months, Creel and Wilson could see that popular enthusiasm for the war was nowhere near white-hot. So on June 14, 1917, Wilson used the occasion of Flag Day to paint a picture of American soldiers about to carry the Stars and Stripes into battle and die on fields soaked in blood. And for what? he asked. In calling for a declaration of war, he had argued that the world must be made safe for democracy, but with his 1917 Flag Day speech, he trained the country’s sights on a less exalted goal: the destruction of the government of Germany, which was bent on world domination.

After Flag Day , the CPI continued to churn out positive news by the ton, but it also began plastering the country with lurid posters of ape-like German soldiers, some with bloody bayonets, others with bare-breasted young females in their clutches. “Destroy this mad brute,” read one caption. It also funded films with titles like The Kaiser: The Beast of Berlin and The Prussian Curse .

Vigilantes inflict terror on suspected skeptics of the war

The CPI’s happy news sometimes downplayed the shortcomings of the U.S. war effort, but the demonizing of all Germans played to low instincts. Thousands of self-appointed guardians of patriotism began to harass pacifists, socialists, and German immigrants who were not citizens. And many Americans took CPI’s dark warnings to heart. 

Even the most casual expression of doubt about the war could trigger a beating by a mob and the humiliation of being made to kiss the flag in public. Americans who declined to buy Liberty Bonds (issued by the Treasury to finance the war) sometimes awoke to find their homes streaked with yellow paint. Several churches of pacifist sects were set ablaze. Scores of men suspected of disloyalty were tarred and feathered, and a handful were lynched. Most of the violence was carried out in the dark by vigilantes who marched their victims to a spot outside the city limits, where the local police had no jurisdiction. Perpetrators who were apprehended were rarely tried, and those tried were almost never found guilty. Jurors hesitated to convict, afraid that they too would be accused of disloyalty and roughed up.

Both Creel and Wilson privately deplored the vigilantes, but neither acknowledged his role in turning them loose. Less violent but no less regrettable were the actions taken by state and local governments and countless private institutions to fire German aliens, suspend performances of German music, and ban the teaching of German in schools.

In their effort to unify the country, Wilson and Creel deployed their own versions of fake news. While the worst that can be said of the sunny fake news flowing out of the CPI was that it was incomplete, the dark fake news, which painted the enemy as subhuman, let loose a riptide of hatred and emboldened thousands to use patriotism as an excuse for violence.

Patricia O’Toole is the author of five books, including The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made  and The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends , which was a finalist for  the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award . 

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European Propaganda During World War I

German propaganda criticizing american world war i tactics..

Edited by: Alec Davis

Introduction

The First World War was set in motion with the assassination of one man, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, following a period of political tension within Europe. Many European countries did not expect to be committed to a highly truculent war from 1914-1918. As the war raged on towards its record setting 5,380,000 casualties, morale on the home front in both the Central Powers and the Allies sank. Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary turned to various forms of propaganda as a tool to popularize support for involvement in World War I. Propaganda played a significant factor in keeping armies from withering away due to lack of recruits and support. In turn, national propaganda moved empires  and spurred on nations to take a lead role in World War I. The time frame of such propaganda promoting World War I involvement is specifically limited to the war era of 1914-1918.

Three main sections compose this research guide; General Overview of World War I, Propaganda in the Allied Forces,  and Propaganda in the Central Powers. The first section contains general overviews of World War I to establish a general knowledge and historical context. I have included sources that focus on military strategy for basic understanding of the physical war along with home front sources that provide a better understanding of war era dynamics at home. Within the two propaganda specific sections I focused on five countries total in order to compile cohesive and productive sources. Propaganda in the Allied Forces contains sources from each country; France, Great Britain, and Russia in various forms for an over all view of what citizens would encounter on a daily basis. Propaganda in the Central Powers contains sources from each country as well; Germany and Austria-Hungary to pursue a less common view point studied in World War I.

World War I studies limited to the militarily victorious Allies’ point of view are dominant in the United States today. However, without taking into account both points of view biased studies form. This research guide is purposed to serve as a starting point for a well rounded inquiry into the propaganda used to propel World War I.

Allied forces propaganda poster. Publicized in Great Britain to boost home front morale and strengthen alliances.

General Overview of World War I

Researching world war i: a handbook.

This research guide analyzes all aspects of World War I, from  training new recruits to home front rationing, in great detail. Each chapter covers one country socially, economically and politically using a plethora of scholarly facts. Higham and Showalter repeatedly compare and contrast World War I with other wars around the globe, such as the Russo-Japanese War, to analyze military strategy and domestic morale. In addition to presenting factual overviews put into historical context, Higham and Showalter provide the reader with an abundance of supplemental sources that offer the opportunity to further research a specific topic in depth.

Higham, Robin, and Dennis E. Showalter, eds. Researching World War I: A Handbook. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2003.

A History of the Great War

Lt. Col. John Buchan’s four volume series explores the history of World War I, The Great War, from a militaristic point of view. Buchan possessed access to classified information as the Director of the Department of Information for the British government while developing these volumes. Volume two contains maps of battles true to the World War I era that add to this source’s value. Although Buchan put together A History of the Great War based on the Great Britain’s view point  he offers his information without the dilution of time.

Buchan, John.   A History of the Great War in Four Volumes. Vol. 2, A History of the Great War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922.

World War I- Britannica Academic Edition

The Britannica Online Encyclopedia offers a bias-free scholarly source for information on World War I . This site also contains links to specific subjects within World War I including maps of battles, informational videos on political boarders, posters used as propaganda, and interactive activities to further explore the subject.

The First World War Documentary

Produced as a  free documentary , this source examines the political unrest in the origins of World War I. It analyzes pre-war political tension around the Austrian Empire and Serbia as necessary, and continues through to the formation of the Allies and the Central Powers military alliances. Although this video discusses theories, it remains neutral and unbiased.

Personal Perspectives: World War I

Personal Perspectives offers a general insight  of World War I  by threading together groups of experiences. This resource covers a vast range of views pulling from British Indian soldiers, allied medical personnel, and women on the home front. Timothy C. Dowling  successfully puts individual views, tinted with bias, into perspective. He confronts the hardest aspect to comprehend about a war, the effect it had in an individual’s personal life.

Dowling, Timothy C.  P ersonal Perspectives: World War I. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005.

Daily Life During World War I

This source evaluates World War I through personal experiences in a collective format. Heyman exploits the views of military members as well as families left behind to face supply demands, covering both spheres of World War I. Due to the elephantine scope of the war this book narrows it’s scope to the western front. Despite only addressing the popular western front, Heyman does not limit himself to trench warfare and includes the experiences of navy personnel involved in submarine warfare and air force pilots in combat in the sky. Daily Life During World War I presents a thorough chronology of events and an abundance of further readings on various subjects.

Heyman, Neil F. Daily Life During World War I. Westport:Greenwood Press, 2002.

The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War

Adrian Gregory’s The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War is an investigation of the course of the war for Great Britain’s civilian population. This source does not cover all aspects of the war. In fact, it backs away from most of the political concerns of the era. Rather than a purely factual textbook, it is both a general synthesis examining some of the cultural attitudes and experiences of civilians during the war and a captivating analytical study of some of the war’s more controversial social, religious, and economic debates. Although Gregory apologizes for not detailing the concerns of uniformed men directly and neglecting “military history, strictly defined,” The Last Great War effectively analyzes World War I on the home front.

Gregory, Adrian. The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Propaganda in the Allied forces- France, Great Britain and Russia

More songs by the fighting men.

This source, published in 1917, is a collection of poems produced from World War I soldiers; Sapper De Banzie, Sub-Lieut.  Bewsher, Sergt. Brooks, Lieut. Carstairs, Corpl. Challenger, Pte. Chilman, Lieut. Choyce, second Lieut. Clements, M.C. second Lieut. Cook, second Lieut. Cooper, Sergt. Coulson, Pte. Cox, and Capt. Crombie among others. The British government publicized poetry from military personnel as a form of support for soldiers throughout the war. This collection of poetry ranges in subject from love interests at home to serene scenes of nature juxtaposing barren battle fields.

MacDonald, Erskine, ed. More Songs by the Fighting Men. London: Erskine MacDonald Ltd., 1917.

1917 French propaganda poster

Week of the Charente Infre

Semaine de la Charlenete Infre is a paragon for French propaganda techniques. The musician in the center wears a military uniform in support of soldiers battling in World War I. French propaganda often incorporated references to the Revolutionary spirit of 1789 through dress or dramatic settings for French nationalism.

It’s a Long Way to Tipperary

It’s a Long Way to Tipperary , written by Jack Judge and co-credited to Henry James Williams, became popular among soldiers. Tipperary refers to Judge’s hometown Tipperary Ireland, simply representing home in this song. After the Connaught Ranger regiment sang it while marching through Boulonge the song became popular among citizens of Great Britain. It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, written about a soldier returning home from war to his lover Molly, kept a hopeful morale up at home.

Russian pre-revolution poster portraying the Red Knight

Generic Russian Propaganda Poster

This pre-Russian Revolution image portrays the Russian Red Knight’s struggles against the dark forces of Europe, the Central powers. A simple layman with a metallurgy hammer represents the majority of Russian citizens during World War I. Suffering 1,800,000 casualties, the most casualties from a single country, the declining Russian government turned to propagandized images during World War I.

Queensland propaganda poster depicting destruction of Belgium

British propaganda poster printed for Queensland

This poster printed in Great Britain for Queensland in World War I suggests perhaps what might be expected in Australia if the German occupation of Belgium expanded and reached to the Pacific. Images of destruction and chaos caused by the Central Powers were publicized to increase enlistment rates. Such images were intended to inspire Australians to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force.

Propaganda in the Central Powers- Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire

Propaganda post card produced by the German PYSOP.

German Post Card “We Teach You To Run!”

We Teach You To Run! produced by the German PYSOP, an organization that claimed propaganda leaflets immoral and illegal, intended to boost German morale by depicting a successful war in which their enemies ran away. Although the Austria-Hungary Empire began World War one Germany became the more powerful militant force as seen in this poster.

Allied Propaganda and the Collapse of the German Empire in 1918

Bruntz examines propaganda within the allies as wells as Germany thoroughly and provides  relations from political propaganda to social changes in mood. He suggests that early in the war Germany conducted a campaign of patriotic propaganda at home to keep up the morale of the German people and the troops. The Kriegspresseamt,War Press office, did this work and also the task of issuing war news to the German press. There was no concentrated effort to produce propaganda in the early years of the war and Germany fell far behind the Allies.

Bruntz, George. Allied Propaganda and the Collapse of the German Empire in 1918. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1938.

War Bond Drive Posters

These posters support the sale of war bonds to prop up the cause of fighting the Allies among citizens whose spirits are worn our. The Austria-Hungary government promoted an abundance of war bond drives through propaganda not only to fund the military, but also to provide citizens with the sense of individual importance. War bond drive posters were Austria-Hungary’s second most common propaganda source, right behind censored newspaper articles.

The first war bond drive propaganda poster.

The fourth war bond drive propaganda poster with the Austro-Hungarian double headed eagle as a symbol of strength clasping a sword in it's talon.

The fifth Austria-Hungary war bond drive held in 1916. Soldiers are displayed on this poster to draw guilt and support from viewers.

Austria-Hungary propaganda poster announcing the seventh war bound drive.

The eighth war bond drive held by Austria-Hungary. A plane dropping banners advertising the war bond drive is depicted to advertise effectively.

• Austria-Hungary Newspaper

The Austria-Hungary Empire government produced most of its propaganda through censored newspaper reports of the “truth” from the front lines. This 1917 edition of an annual censored newspaper contains images and descriptions that tell citizens what they desire to hear from the war. The first, second, and third newspaper clippings show valiant battles against the enemy forces to imply a quick victory in World War I. The fourth clipping depicts an Astro-Hungarian hero dealing with a Jewish scoundrel to assert Austria-Hungary’s authoritative power. The fifth clipping describes a heart warming story about Archduke Franz Karl to unify citizens under him.

Austria-Hungary troops defeating Russian forces in Poland.

Austri-Hungary forces facing Italian enemy forces in 1917.

The defeat of the Montenegrins in 1916, the Serbs would liberate Montenegro again in 1918.

An Astro Hungarian hero deals with a Jewish scoundrel. 1917

Prayer for the Fallen

Austro-Hungarian propaganda was not limited to military or political focus, this clipping extends propaganda to include religious tactics. Influence on the citizenry increased with expansion of propaganda to include religion because once the government related to each individual in multiple ways they would gain more influence.

A 1917 propaganda newspaper requesting prayers for fall soldiers.

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The History Hit Miscellany of Facts, Figures and Fascinating Finds

• 20th Century

The Great War in Words: 20 Quotes by Contemporaries of World War One

Alex Browne

03 mar 2019.

The First World War marked all those who had a hand in it or experienced it in any way. Technology had changed warfare so significantly that it enabled unprecedented death and destruction. Furthermore the economic impact of the war was as unparalleled as the butchery.

Such a monumental event naturally had far-reaching cultural effects. Just as art embodied the Great War , so did the words of those who lived concurrent with the conflict.

Here are 21 quotes by significant figures who lived at the time of the First World War.

Quotes on the build up

The leader’s perspective

Perspectives from the Western Front

Reflecting on the War

 Full text version:

1. There has been a constant tendency on the part of almost every nation to increase its armed force.

 British Prime Minister The Marquess of Salisbury, 1898.

2. Since it came into existence, our party has not given to the German army a single man or a single penny.

 German Social Democrat Wilhelm Liebknecht, 1893.

3. We cannot afford to leave out any recruit who can wear a helmet.

 Theobald Bethmann-Holwegg, 1912.

4. A great moral victory for Vienna, but with it, every reason for war disappears.”

Kaiser Wilhelm commenting on the Serbian response to Austria-Hungary’s Ultimatum 1914.

5. Should the worst happen Australia would rally to the Mother Country to help and defend her to our last man and our last shilling.

 Andrew Fisher, Australian politician, August 1914.

6. If the women in the factories stopped work for twenty minutes, the Allies would lose the war.

French Field Marshal and Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre.

7. I didn’t get much peace, but I heard in Norway that Russia might well become a huge market for tractors soon.

Henry Ford, returning from his unofficial peace mission, December 24, 1915.

8. I think a curse should rest on me — because I love this war. I know it’s smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment — and yet — I can’t help it — I enjoy every second of it.

 Winston Churchill in a letter to a friend – 1916.

9. This war, like the next war, is a war to end war.

David Lloyd George, c.1916.

10. We’re telling lies; we know we’re telling lies; we don’t tell the public the truth, that we’re losing more officers than the Germans, and that it’s impossible to get through on the Western Front.

 Lord Rothermere 1917.

11. Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide.

 French soldier Henri Barbusse, in his novel “Le Feu”, 1915.

12. For a young man who had a long and worthwhile future awaiting him, it was not easy to expect death almost daily. However, after a while I got used to the idea of dying young. Strangely, it had a sort of soothing effect and prevented me from worrying too much. Because of this I gradually lost the terrible fear of being wounded or killed.

 German volunteer, Reinhold Spengler.

13. These two men got drunk and they wandered away and got caught. They laughed it off. They thought it was just something or nothing; but they were court-martialled and they were sentenced to be shot, subject to Sir Douglas Haig. He could have said no, but he didn’t. So they were shot. They were described as being killed in action.

Private of the West Yorkshire Regiment, George Morgan.

14. In the newspapers you read: “Peacefully they rest on the spot where they have bled and suffered, while the guns roar over their graves, taking vengeance for their heroic death”. And it doesn’t occur to anybody that the enemy is also firing; that the shells plunge into the hero’s grave; that his bones are mingled with the filth which they scatter to the four winds – and that, after a few weeks, the morass closes over the last resting-place of the soldier.

Kanonier of the 111 Bavarian Corps, Artillery, Gerhard Gürtler.

15. There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Abstract words such as glory, honour, courage, or hallow were obscene.

 Ernest Hemingway, in ‘A Farewell to Arms’, 1929.

16. I also knew of men who did themselves in. British soldiers weary of sitting in the trenches who cut their throats during leave. If order hadn’t been maintained, they would have deserted. They were coerced. When you’re in the army, you can’t just do whatever you want.

Gaston Boudry, in the Belgian book ‘Van den Grooten Oorlog’.

17. There was not a sign of life of any sort. Not a tree, save for a few dead stumps which looked strange in the moonlight. Not a bird, not even a rat or a blade of grass. Nature was as dead as those Canadians whose bodies remained where they had fallen the previous autumn. Death was written large everywhere.

 Private R.A. Colwell, Passchendaele, January 1918.

18. World War One was the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery that has ever taken place on earth. Any writer who said otherwise lied, So the writers either wrote propaganda, shut up, or fought.

 Ernest Hemingway.

19. During the war 500,000 coloured men and boys were called up under the draft, not one of whom sought to evade it. They took their places wherever assigned in defence of the nation of which they are just as truly citizens as are any others.

 Calvin Coolidge in a letter to Charles Gardner 1924.

20. We do not like to be robbed of an enemy; we want someone to have when we suffer. … If so-and-so’s wickedness is the sole cause of our misery, let us punish so-and-so and we shall be happy. The supreme example of this kind of political thought was the Treaty of Versailles. Yet most people are only seeking some new scapegoat to replace the Germans.

 Bertrand Russel in Skeptical Essays.

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Propaganda During World War II Essay

The Second World War was a complicated time for both the general public and the authorities since while the former worried for their safety, family, and homeland, the latter needed to maintain the national spirit and support the soldiers at the front. For such purposes, posters were implemented involving colorful images with strong words. However, while some might think that posters from the 20th century served as inspiration or plea, they were aimed to influence people psychologically.

The first propaganda poster Every minute counts! represents the influence of lost time on the battlefield failures of their soldiers. The technique used in this poster involves fear, through which the authorities strive to scare individuals working at manufacturing factories, urging them to work harder. In this sense, the poster incorporates statistics and figures, implying that every ten minutes that are lost will lead to less ammunition and weaponry, which will, in turn, postpone the victory.

Another poster, Air defense is home defense uses the technique of connecting with the audience. In their attempt to recruit as many individuals into air defense, the authorities aim to incorporate a heart-warming illustration of a family that looks in the sky and admires the national military plane. In a way, stereotypes in posters were common during wartime (Brewer 26). Here, the objective is to emphasize the pride in national defense and show the general public endorsement of the air forces.

The last poster, England expects, incorporates the technique of calling to action via bright colors, illustration of the national flag, and words. The phrase national service is written in bold red color that is contrasted by the dark blue background, which is used to catch the attention of the audience. Moreover, the number of people illustrated in the poster serves to show the national spirit, urging others to join the forces.

Hence, while some individuals might mistakenly believe that 20th-century posters acted as calls to action or acts of inspiration, their true purpose was to affect the audience psychologically. Every minute counts! is a propaganda poster that employs the technique of fear to illustrate the impact of wasted time on their soldiers’ failures on the battlefield. Another poster, Air defense is home defense , employs the audience-connection strategy. The final poster, England expects , employs the strategy of urging action via the use of bold colors, an image of the national flag, and text.

Brewer, Susan A. To Win the Peace: British Propaganda in the United States During World War II . Cornell University Press, 2019.

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Do Russians Believe Putin’s Propaganda?

The conspiracy theories hit my phone before I even knew what they were about.

"It’s a false flag."

"It’s a covert U.S. op."

It was the night of March 22 and I was pulling into Kyiv on the long trip from the Polish border. The connection was patchy. I had to scroll back through the sound and fury of social media to find out what was happening: shooters in an upmarket Moscow mall were slaughtering civilians. Dozens were already dead. The former Russian President, Medvedev, was already blaming Ukraine.

Though ISIS quickly took all responsibility in the coming days, and though the Americans had publicly warned the Russians an attack was coming, Russian propaganda has only increased claims that Ukraine and the West were responsible. There has even been a video on Russian news showing the head of the Ukrainian national security council claiming Ukraine would be arranging more such “fun” in Russia. The video was an AI ‘deep fake.’ The Ukrainians I met thought the propaganda predictable—of course Putin would push these conspiracy theories and use the atrocity to further attack Ukraine. In the next days the attacks on Ukrainian civilians and energy systems were particularly bad. Russia used the terror attack to fuel more terror.

But I wondered how people inside Russia would react. Would they be persuaded by the Kremlin propaganda? Could one, and was it worth, communicate the truth to them? After all the terrorist attack is a moment of potential vulnerability for Putin: the supposed strongman who promises to keep his people safe, who does so much to insulate Moscow elites from the consequences of war, has allowed a massive terror attacks to take place in an elite Moscow shopping mall.

Two weeks since the atrocity some polls show a majority of Russians say they agree with the government line that Ukraine and the West were behind the attack . But polls can be difficult in a dictatorship. Other studies—by the same researchers—have shown that many Russians will often go along with whatever Putin tells them , saying that “the government is right, solely because it is the government and it has power.”

Read More: Putin's Myths About Ukraine, Debunked

When I lived in Russia in the 2000s, I was always struck how people could hold different versions of ‘truth’ at the same time, revealing them depending on how private the conversation was (or how much had been drunk). In the 2000s there were several such terrorist atrocities. In private Russians would often speculate that the Kremlin itself was behind them—and Putin certainly used these moments as an excuse to introduce harsher rule and wars. Some even speculated that the Kremlin itself put out the conspiracy that it was behind terrorist attacks—it’s better for Putin to seem murderous but all powerful, than so weak he can allow terrorists to murder easily around Moscow. In a political system as murky as Russia’s, such multi-layers of conspiracies flourish. But that also means that it’s easy for the Kremlin to push conspiracy theories, including the latest one.

If what you say you think is less about ‘the truth’ and more about signifying your loyalty, then perhaps a better way to explore the relationship between propaganda and the Russian people is not polling, but looking at the dynamic between propaganda and behaviour, both physical and discursive (what people do and how people talk).

In a new report for Filter Labs that I have been advising on, data scientists fused Russian economic, social, and online discursive data. They found there were vulnerabilities to the Kremlin’s propaganda.

Take the issue of inflation. Inflation is rising hard in Russia. Costs for cars, for example, have gone up 15% since 2022. While Russian propaganda pushes out stories saying about great salary levels, online discourse shows that people feel their salaries are insufficient. Because of the lack of belief in the future of the currency, people are taking out a high amount of debt, thinking it can be paid back cheaply later: household debt has been increasing 17% in 2023. Government propaganda encourages people to save and not take on more debt; however, peoples’ behaviours shows that they don’t buy this.

Even when government campaigns are successful, they struggle for momentum. For example, Russian propaganda has been pushing stories about how wonderful the Russian medical care is- despite problems with quality medicine since the start of the war. Such propaganda campaigns work for a few weeks, but then the conversation around this topic on social media becomes negative, and the Kremlin tries to drive it up again. Likewise with mobilisation: the Kremlin pushes campaigns promoting recruiting soldiers, the sentiment online to the policy goes up for a few weeks, before going negative again.

This pattern shows how important it is to the Kremlin to control behaviour and the tenor of discourse—and how it struggles to keep control. Perhaps this is the best way to approach ‘public opinion’ in Russia. Rather than about ‘belief’ it should be measured in the extent to which the Kremlin can get people to agree to parrot the official narratives. Indeed the less they believe the lies yet repeat them, the more in control the Kremlin is. This need for control goes deep for Kremlin elites: they worry about losing it in the way the Soviet leadership did in the late 1980s.

That was always the threat the Alexey Navalny posed to the Kremlin. There was little surprising about his videos about Kremlin corruption—everyone assumes officials are corrupt. What was powerful was the way he dared to say the unsayable. So powerful the Kremlin had to kill him.

With Navalny gone who else can deliver such campaigns that question the Kremlin’s grip? Is it time for the West to try them instead? Such campaigns are not about persuading Russians—truth in and of itself plays little role in this system. It’s about showing the Kremlin it has less control than it hopes over the information space.

We should view information the same way we see military production, sanctions or drone strikes. When Ukrainian drones hit Russian oil refineries, they are signaling that Russia doesn’t have control over its main sources of profit. If Ukraine’s allies were to show that we have the resolve to outproduce and sanction Russia effectively, Moscow would start to change its calculations around the risks its war involves.

If we show that the Kremlin can’t keep its grip on what people say and do in Russia, they will also start to think about whether the risk is worth it. Sadly, with the exception of Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries, we are currently unable or unwilling to do any of the above. The Kremlin is outproducing us militarily; sanctions are weakly enforced; the Kremlin’s hold over the information space does unchallenged. Putin will calculate accordingly.

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String of Israeli Errors Led to Fatal Attack on Aid Convoy, Military Says

“It’s a serious event that we’re responsible for, and it shouldn’t have happened,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said of the strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers.

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By Aaron Boxerman and Adam Rasgon

Reporting from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem

A series of Israeli failures, including a breakdown in communication and violations of the military’s own rules of engagement, led to the deadly airstrikes that killed seven humanitarian aid workers in Gaza this week, senior Israeli military officials said on Friday.

The military officials said that the officers who ordered the strikes on the aid convoy had violated the army’s protocols, in part by opening fire on the basis of insufficient and erroneous evidence that a passenger in one of the cars was armed.

The attack prompted a wave of international outrage and renewed questions about whether Israeli forces on the ground in Gaza properly vet targets before unleashing deadly force. Israel has come under increasing pressure over the high civilian death toll in its six-month war in Gaza . The strikes on the aid workers prompted President Biden for the first time to say he would leverage U.S. aid to influence the conduct of the war against Hamas.

On Friday, the Israeli military announced that two officers — a reserve colonel and a major — would be dismissed from their positions. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, had also decided to formally reprimand the head of Israel’s southern command as well as two other senior officers, the military said in a statement .

The military said the “grave mistake” had stemmed from “a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures.”

“It’s a tragedy,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, told reporters in a briefing on Thursday night. “It’s a serious event that we’re responsible for, and it shouldn’t have happened.”

World Central Kitchen, the relief group whose aid workers were killed, called the Israeli military’s statements “cold comfort” and reiterated its call for an independent inquiry. The aid organization’s operations — which have distributed millions of meals to Gazans — remained suspended, the group said.

“It’s not enough to simply try to avoid further humanitarian deaths, which have now approached close to 200,” the group’s founder, José Andrés, said in a statement . “All civilians need to be protected, and all innocent people in Gaza need to be fed and safe. And all hostages must be released.”

Critics have said that the Israeli military has shown a disregard for Palestinian civilians in its campaign to root out Hamas, the militant group whose attack on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

The army said its findings on Monday’s strikes would be sent to military prosecutors to assess whether anyone should face criminal charges. The army is also assessing whether the two officers stripped of their posts should be moved to other roles or be fired entirely.

Though the Israeli military has assigned a special committee to investigate allegations of misconduct during several conflicts over the past decade, rights campaigners have said the military justice system has historically been slow to charge, let alone convict, soldiers accused of crimes against Palestinians.

For Abdu Rahman Mohammad, an accountant from Khan Younis who has lost eight cousins in the war, the Israeli military’s apology for the aid workers’ deaths felt like “a slap in the face” that further demonstrated that Palestinian lives were of lesser value.

According to the military, Israeli forces began striking the World Central Kitchen convoy at 10:09 p.m. on Monday, as the vehicles made their way along Gaza’s coast. The attack killed six foreign nationals and a Palestinian, all of whom had handled the food aid that had arrived in Gaza by sea.

Like many aid groups, the World Central Kitchen had sought to ensure its workers’ safety in Gaza, where, according to local health officials, Israel’s campaign against Hamas has killed more than 32,000 people. The workers had coordinated their mission in advance with the Israeli military, and the roofs of the vehicles had been marked with the World Central Kitchen’s logo.

Despite those safeguards, a series of critical errors led the troops to open fire on the convoy, according to the results of the military’s preliminary inquiry. Drone footage, the inquiry found, had not captured the organization’s logo in the dark; some officers did not review documentation showing that the convoy included civilian cars; and a drone operator had identified incorrectly an aid worker, who was most likely carrying a bag, as a member of an armed Palestinian group with a gun.

The seven aid workers had arrived in northern Gaza earlier on Monday to help deliver more than 100 tons of food aid, according to World Central Kitchen. Their trucks left around 9 p.m. and headed south for the group’s warehouse, according to the Israeli military.

Along the coastal road, the trucks met with cars who joined their convoy, according to the military. Shortly after, a gunman appeared to fire a single round from the roof of one of the trucks, according to Maj. Gen. Yoav Har-Even, a reserve officer who oversees the military’s investigations into potential cases of wartime misconduct.

The drone operator and his commanding officers were unaware that the cars were part of the approved humanitarian convoy and wrongly assumed they were carrying armed Palestinians, the Israeli officials said.

Asked why the soldiers were out of the loop, General Har-Even said that certain officers had not seen the coordination documentation. “No excuses,” Gen. Har-Even said, describing the communication failure.

After the convoy arrived at the warehouse, Israeli drone footage captured what officials said were believed to be more gunmen at the scene. The Israeli military screened videos for reporters at the briefing on Thursday. The New York Times could not independently verify the military’s video.

The officers were convinced that the scene they had witnessed resembled what they said were previous attempts by Hamas militants to seize humanitarian aid in Gaza, the officials said. Basem Naim, a Hamas spokesman, denied that Hamas stole aid, calling the accusation “Israeli propaganda.”

The cars then left the warehouse — three cars went south and one went north, the military officials said. Before they left, a drone operator spotted what he believed — wrongly, General Har-Even said — was a figure bearing a weapon entering one of the three southbound cars.

Within four minutes, at least one Israeli drone struck each of the three vehicles in the convoy as they traveled south one behind the other, killing all seven passengers, the Israeli officials said. Israeli officers fired on the first car without “enough to say this is a legitimate target,” said Benny Gal, one of the Israeli generals who briefed reporters.

Some aid workers in the first vehicle struck fled to the next vehicle for protection, the officials said. That vehicle was hit, too.

The soldiers’ decision to fire on the second and third car, assuming wrongly that they were also harboring militants, failed to meet the Israeli military’s open-fire protocols, the officials said. The Israeli military’s rules of engagement are classified, making it difficult to know what the standard for using deadly force was on Monday night. But General Har-Even indicated the attack categorically broke them .

“This was against the rules of engagement,” he said.

The Israeli military also failed to convey key information about the aid workers’ plans to lower-ranking soldiers operating in the area, General Har-Even said.

Aid agencies had begged the Israeli authorities for months to open a direct line between them and Israeli military forces to avoid disastrous misfires, Jamie McGoldrick, a senior U.N. relief official, said. But those pleas had mostly fallen on deaf ears, he said, contributing to “a lot of near misses.”

Asked whether the military was concerned that more cases of indiscriminate fire had occurred over months of intensive Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip, Admiral Hagari, its spokesman, didn’t provide a substantive answer.

Referring to the strikes on the aid convoy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “deeply regrets the tragic incident.”

During a phone call with Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday, the White House said, Mr. Biden described the attack on the aid convoy and the overall humanitarian situation in Gaza as “unacceptable.”

Mr. Biden threatened to condition future support for Israel on how it addresses his concerns about civilian casualties and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, prompting Israel to say it would open up more routes for aid into the besieged enclave.

Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting from London and Patrick Kingsley from Jerusalem.

Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporting fellow with a focus on international news. More about Aaron Boxerman

Adam Rasgon reports from Israel for The Times's Jerusalem bureau. More about Adam Rasgon

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

Germany defended itself at the International Court of Justice against accusations that it was furthering genocide in Gaza  by supplying arms to Israel. Nicaragua brought the case to the court in The Hague.

The Israeli military’s departure from southern Gaza  has left the territory in a state of suspense as active fighting there receded to its lowest ebb  since a brief truce with Hamas in November.

The withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Gaza allowed some Palestinians to return to the city of Khan Younis and check on their homes. But some found only destruction .

Turmoil at J Street: The war in Gaza has raised serious concerns within the Jewish political advocacy group about its ability to hold a middle position  without being pulled apart by forces on the right and the left.

Challenging Democratic Leaders: Protests over the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza are disrupting the activities of Democratic officials, complicating their ability to campaign during a pivotal election year .

Germany’s Upended Arts Scene: Berlin, the home of boundary-pushing artists from around the world, has been turned upside down by debates about what can and can’t be said about Israel and the war in Gaza .

Internal Roil at TikTok: TikTok has been dogged by accusations that its app has shown a disproportionate amount of pro-Palestinian and antisemitic content to users. Some of the same tensions  have also played out inside the company.

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‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza

IDF says it ‘completely rejects’ charge that its soldiers deliberately fired on any of the thousands of civilians killed in Israeli offensive

Dr Fozia Alvi was making her rounds of the intensive care unit on her final day at the battered European public hospital in southern Gaza when she stopped next to two young arrivals with facial injuries and breathing tubes in their windpipes.

“I asked the nurse, what’s the history? She said that they were brought in a couple of hours ago. They had sniper shots to the brain. They were seven or eight years old,” she said.

The Canadian doctor’s heart sank. These were not the first children treated by Alvi who she was told were targeted by Israeli soldiers, and she knew the damage a single high-calibre bullet could do to a fragile young body.

“They were not able to talk, paraplegic. They were literally lying down as vegetables on those beds. They were not the only ones. I saw even small children with direct sniper shot wounds to the head as well as in the chest. They were not combatants, they were small children,” said Alvi.

Children account for more than one in three of the more than 32,000 people killed in Israel’s months-long assault on Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Tens of thousands more young people have suffered severe injuries, including amputations.

Nine doctors gave the Guardian accounts of working in Gaza hospitals this year, all but one of them foreign volunteers. Their common assessment was that most of the dead and wounded children they treated were hit by shrapnel or burned during Israel’s extensive bombardment of residential neighbourhoods, in some cases wiping out entire families. Others were killed or injured by collapsing buildings with still more missing under the rubble.

But doctors also reported treating a steady stream of children, elderly people and others who were clearly not combatants with single bullet wounds to the head or chest.

Some of the physicians said that the types and locations of the wounds, and accounts of Palestinians who brought children to the hospital, led them to believe the victims were directly targeted by Israeli troops.

Other doctors said they did not know the circumstances of the shootings but that they were deeply troubled by the number of children who were severely wounded or killed by single gunshots, sometimes by high-calibre bullets causing extensive damage to young bodies.

In mid-February, a group of UN experts accused the Israeli military of targeting Palestinian civilians who are evidently not combatants, including children, as they sought shelter.

“We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing. Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces,” the group said.

The Guardian shared descriptions and images of gunshot wounds suffered by eight children with military experts and forensic pathologists. They said it was difficult to conclusively determine the circumstances of the shootings based on the descriptions and photos alone, although in some of the cases they were able to identify ammunition used by the Israeli military.

Eyewitness accounts and video recordings appear to back up claims that Israeli soldiers have fired on civilians, including children, outside of combat with Hamas or other armed groups. In some cases, witnesses describe coming under fire while waving white flags. Haaretz reported on Saturday that Israel routinely fires on civilians in areas its military has declared a “combat zone”.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deploy snipers – or sharpshooters, as the military calls them – during combat operations, often as part of elite units. They are trained to “target and eliminate particularly difficult terrorist threats”, according to the military’s own definition.

Israeli and foreign human rights groups have documented a long history of snipers firing on unarmed Palestinians, including children, in Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestinians in Gaza also report a terrifying new development in the latest Gaza war – armed drones able to hover over streets and pick off individuals. Called quadcopters, some of these drones are used as remote-control snipers that Palestinians say have been used to shoot civilians.

The IDF said it “completely rejects” allegations that its snipers deliberately fire on civilians. It said it cannot address individual shootings “without coordinates of the incidents”.

“The IDF only targets terrorists and military targets. In stark contrast to Hamas’s deliberate attacks on Israeli civilians, including men, women and children, the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm,” it said.

Doctors say otherwise.

Dr Vanita Gupta, an intensive care doctor at a New York City hospital, volunteered at Gaza’s European hospital in January. One morning, three badly wounded children arrived in quick succession. Their families told Gupta that the children had been together in the street when they came under fire and that there had been no other shooting in the area. She said no wounded adults were brought in to the hospital at the same time and from the same place.

“One child, I could see there was a shot to the head. They were doing CPR on this five- or six-year-old girl who obviously died,” said Gupta.

“There was another little girl about the same age. I saw a bullet entry wound on her head. Her father was there, crying and asking me, ‘Can you save her? She’s my only child.’”

Gupta said that a third young child also had a shot to the head and was sent for a CT scan.

“The neurosurgeon looked and said, ‘There’s no hope.’ You could see the bullet had gone through the head. I don’t know how old he was, but young,” she said.

Family members told Gupta that the Israeli army had withdrawn from the area about four kilometres from the hospital.

“They said people started returning to their homes because the army was gone. But the snipers stayed on. The families said they opened fire at the children,” she said.

Doctors who worked at the Nasser hospital in southern Gaza said what appeared to be targeted Israeli fire killed more than two dozen people, including children, as they entered or left the hospital in the first weeks of this year.

Among the casualties was 14-year-old Ruwa Qdeih. Doctors say she was shot dead outside the hospital in Khan Younis as she went to collect water. They said there was no fighting in the area at the time and that she was killed by a single shot and then men who went to recover her body were also shot at.

In Gaza City, three-year-old Emad Abu al-Qura was shot outside his home as he went to buy fruit with his cousin, Hadeel, a 20-year-old medical student, who was also killed. The family said they were targeted by an Israeli sniper.

A video of the pair lying together in the street shows Emad still alive after he is first hit and trying to lift his head. More shots hit the ground close by including one that strikes a plank next to Emad. The boy’s mother said he was then hit again and this time killed.

Hadeel’s father, Haroon, saw the shooting.

“The targeting of civilians is very clear. It is a deliberate direct targeting aimed at killing civilians without reason, without there being any events, without there being any resistance. They deliberately killed Hadeel and Emad,” he told Al Jazeera .

Other young victims include 14-year-old Nahedh Barbakh, who was hit by sniper fire alongside his 20-year-old brother, Ramez, as they followed Israeli military orders to evacuate an area west of Khan Younis in late January, according to the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor .

According to a witness interviewed by Euro-Med Monitor, Nahedh was carrying a white flag to lead the way for his family, but after walking just a few steps from the house he was hit in the leg by a bullet. As the teenager attempted to turn back home he was shot in the back and head, the witness said.

Ramez was shot through the heart when he tried to rescue his brother.

The family decided it was too dangerous to recover the bodies and eventually fled the area, leaving the brothers still lying in the street. A last photograph shows Ramez stretched across Nahedh’s body with the white flag tangled between them.

Witnesses said the shots came from the rooftop of a nearby building taken over by Israeli soldiers.

A new threat

In December, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said that 13-year-old Amir Odeh was killed by an Israeli drone at its headquarters in the Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis. The family told Euro-Med Monitor he was shot through a window as he played with his cousins on the eighth floor of building where they had sought shelter from the fighting. The killing was especially notable because the single shot to the chest came from a type of drone not seen in combat in Gaza before – a quadcopter, fitted with a gun, camera and speaker . Unlike some other drones, quadcopters are able to hover over their targets.

Dr Thaer Ahmad, a Chicago doctor who volunteered in Nasser hospital’s emergency room, said quadcopters sometimes appeared in swarms, giving orders to Palestinians to clear an area.

“We heard an incredible amount of stories from people recovering from injuries from these quadcopters firing bullets from the sky,” he said.

Ahmad said that on one occasion a drone shot one of the hospital’s doctors in the head, although he survived.

Dr Ahmed Moghrabi described on Instagram “hundreds” of quadcopters descending on the Nasser hospital in the third week of February and ordering people to evacuate the compound before killing a number of them. On another occasion, he filmed quadcopters giving instructions to Palestinians to leave the area.

Although the Israeli military has previously deployed quadcopters for intelligence gathering, this appears to be the first time that versions of the drone able to fire guns have been used against the Palestinians.

Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon and who was recently elected rector of the University of Glasgow, told Mondoweiss , a leftwing Israel-Palestine news site, that working at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City “we were getting a lot of people shot by these quadcopters, these drones that have sniper guns attached to them”.

Abu-Sittah, who has operated on Palestinians wounded by Israeli sharpshooters during visits to Gaza in earlier years, described the quadcopters as firing “single high-velocity” shots.

“We have received over 20 chest and neck gunshot wounds fired from Israeli Quadcopter drones. This is a low flying sniper drone,” he wrote on X.

Quadcopter killings documented by Euro-Med Monitor include two children shot dead on 21 January when drones opened fire at al-Aqsa University near Khan Younis, where thousands of displaced Palestinians were sheltering. The following month, a drone shot dead Elyas Abu Jama, a 17-year-old whose family said had mental and physical disabilities, outside his tent in a Rafah displaced persons camp. Euro-Med Monitor said that on the same day, a quadcopter killed 16-year-old Mahmoud al-Assar and his 21-year-old sister, Asmaa.

Thaer Ahmad spent three weeks at the Nasser hospital in January as a volunteer with the medical charity MedGlobal. Normally he works at a trauma centre on Chicago’s south side, where he regularly deals with gunshot wounds.

“I did more trauma procedures on paediatric patients in the three weeks that I was at Nasser than I did in the 10 years that I’ve been practising in the US,” he said.

The doctor said he treated five children he believes were shot by snipers because the placing of the bullets suggested they were not hit randomly but targeted.

“They were mostly shot in the thorax, the chest area, some in the abdomen. There was one boy shot in the face. As a result he had a shattered jaw. There were two children who had been shot in the chest, young, under the age of 10, who did not survive. Two others, one shot in the abdomen, did survive. They were still recovering in the hospital when I left,” he said.

Ahmad noted the children were often shot by “one large-calibre bullet” which could produce devastating wounds.

Dr Irfan Galaria, a surgeon based in Virginia, slept on the operating room floor of the European hospital between shifts as a volunteer in January. He too saw children badly wounded by high-calibre bullets.

Galaria said that a 14-year-old boy arrived at the hospital who had been shot once through the back. When surgeons operated they found a bullet in the boy’s stomach.

“He was very lucky because it missed a lot of the vital organs but it was just sitting in his abdomen,” he said.

The surgeon took a photo of the bullet, which former IDF soldiers who spoke with the Guardian identified as a powerful .50 calibre round typically fired from a machine gun mounted on an armoured vehicle, although it has also been used in sniper rifles. They said that vehicle-mounted guns often have advanced sighting systems that allow them to target shots but that large numbers of .50 rounds could be fired without precision targeting, making it difficult to establish whether the child was targeted.

Other bullets recovered from young Palestinians include 5.56mm rounds that are standard issue for all IDF infantry rifles but also used by marksmen attached to all infantry units.

Gupta provided the Guardian with CT scans of children with head wounds. These included one of an eight-year-old girl that a pathologist described as showing a “gunshot wound to the head entering right side with bullet in brain (medial right temporal lobe)”.

Although doctors were shocked at the number of child victims, they said they believed the shootings were part of a broader pattern of targeting Palestinian civilians, including elderly people.

“The vast majority of people we saw were not combatants,” said Ahmad. “There was an elderly woman who was on the back of a donkey cart when she was shot. The bullet lodged in her spine and she was paralysed from the waist down and also her lung collapsed. She was somewhere between 60 and 70 years old.”

‘Sniper wounds were common’

Dr Osaid Alser helped organise a group of doctors outside Gaza to give long-distance guidance to the only Palestinian general surgeon remaining at Nasser hospital, who only had limited experience.

“Sniper wounds were common, and quadcopter gunshots as well,” said Alser, who grew up in Gaza City and now lives in Texas.

Doctors said that apparent sniper shots also account for numerous amputations and long-term disabilities, made all the worse in children because a bullet often causes more damage to small bodies.

Alser argued that it was often possible to distinguish sniper shots.

“When it’s a sniper, usually it’s a bigger bullet, which causes significantly more damage and has more shock-wave energy as compared to a smaller rifle or a pistol. If it’s a sniper, it may cause amputation of the limb because it will cause damage to the vascular structure – nerves, bone, soft tissue, everything,” he said.

“Another pattern is injury to the spinal cord when people are shot in the middle of the abdomen or in the middle of the back. Spinal cord injury is not necessarily fatal, unless it’s the neck, but it can be disabling.”

Alser said that one of his elderly relatives, a pioneer of dentistry in Gaza, was among the apparent victims of a sniper.

Dr Mohammed Al Madhoun went missing after seeking medical treatment for a chronic condition at a charity hospital west of Gaza City in December. The 73-year-old’s body was found near the hospital a week later alongside that of his great-nephew. They had both been shot.

“The pattern of injury, and the amount of damage from the bullet, was significant, and that’s mainly caused by a sniper,” said Alser, who reviewed CT scans of the injury. “He was obviously old. You wouldn’t expect a 73-year-old to be a target, right?”

The doctor said the cases he reviewed remotely included other elderly people, among them a woman in her 70s.

“She was shot by a sniper and she had a massive head bleed. That is non-survivable. She died a day or two after,” he said.

In October, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described the IDF as “the most moral army in the world”. The Israeli military claims to be guided by a “ purity of arms ” doctrine that precludes soldiers from harming “uninvolved civilians”.

But Israeli and international human rights groups have long said that the military’s failure to enforce its own standards – and its willingness to cover up breaches – has contributed to a climate of impunity for soldiers who target civilians.

The groups say it is extremely difficult at this stage to quantify the scale of such shootings in Gaza, not least because their own staff are often displaced and under attack. But Miranda Cleland of Defense for Children International Palestine said that over the years there had been a “clear pattern of Israeli forces targeting Palestinian children with deadly force in situations where the children posed no threat to soldiers”.

“In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers routinely shoot children in the head, chest or abdomen, all areas from which a child will quickly bleed out if they aren’t killed instantly. Many of these children are shot by Israeli forces from great distances, sometimes upwards of 500ft, which is something only a trained military sniper would be capable of,” she said.

An Israeli group, Breaking the Silence, collected testimonies from IDF soldiers in earlier conflicts who said they shot Palestinian civilians merely because they were where they were not supposed to be even though it was evident they were not combatants.

IDF snipers boasted about shooting unarmed Palestinian protesters, including young people, in the knees during nearly two years of demonstrations at the Gaza border fence from the spring of 2018.

One former Israeli army sniper, who did not want to be named, told the Guardian that the IDF’s open-fire regulations were so broad that a soldier has extensive leeway to shoot at anyone once an area is declared a combat zone.

“The problem is the regulations that enable soldiers who just want to shoot Palestinians. In my experience, most soldiers who pull a trigger only want to kill those who should be killed but there are those who regard all the Arabs as the enemy and find any reason to shoot or no reason at all,” he said, adding that a system of impunity protects such soldiers.

“Even if they are outside the regulations, the system will protect them. The army will cover up. The other soldiers in the unit will not object or they will celebrate another dead Arab. There’s no accountability so even the loosest regulations have no real meaning.”

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has described the IDF’s open-fire regulations as “no more than a semblance of legality” in part because they are “repeatedly violated”.

“Other than a handful of cases, usually involving low-ranking soldiers, no one has been put on trial for harming Palestinians,” the group said.

In one of the most notorious cases of soldiers shooting young children in the occupied territories, an army captain fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, Iman al-Hams, in 2004 after she crossed into a security zone even though she posed no immediate threat and his own soldiers told him she was “a little girl” who was “scared to death”. The captain was cleared of wrongdoing by a military court.

The Israeli military also has a long history of covering up the killing of children.

After 11-year-old Khalil al-Mughrabi was shot dead as he played football in Rafah in 2001, the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem wrote to the IDF demanding an inquiry.

Months later, the judge advocate general’s office told B’Tselem that Khalil was shot by soldiers who acted with “restraint and control” to disperse a riot in the area. However, the IDF made the mistake of attaching a copy of its secret internal investigation, which said the riot had been much earlier in the day and that soldiers who opened fire on the child were guilty of a “serious deviation from obligatory norms of behaviour”.

The chief military prosecutor, Col Einat Ron, then spelled out alternative false scenarios that should be offered to B’Tselem to cover up the crime.

More recently, the IDF was accused of lying to cover up the shooting of the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, almost certainly by an Israeli sniper. The military at first blamed the Palestinians and then falsely claimed that Abu Akleh was caught in crossfire during a gun battle. Her employer, Al Jazeera , presented video evidence that there was no firefight and that at least one Israeli soldier was targeting the journalist.

Alvi, the Canadian physician, left Gaza in the third week of February as Israeli forces were threatening a ground assault against Rafah. Alvi founded the US-based charity Humanity Auxilium , which has worked with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, displaced Syrians and earthquake survivors in Turkey.

“This is not a normal war. The war in Ukraine has killed 500 kids in two years and the war in Gaza has killed over 10,000 in less than five months. We have seen wars before but this is something that is a dark stain on our shared humanity.”

• Israel-Gaza war
• Palestinian territories
• Middle East and north Africa

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