Since October 7th, influence warfare has become a central arena in the confrontation between the Axis of Resistance and Israel. Alongside military operations, Iranian proxies have intensified their efforts to manipulate information against Israel and the West. This demonstrates their recognition that the psychological battlespace can offset conventional military limitations, generating strategic effects far greater than the minimal cost of producing and distributing information.

The following case examines one such effort: the Al-Khanadeq media channel, a key example of how Hezbollah has adapted and expanded its influence operations in the post-October 7th landscape.

About Al-Khanadeq 

Al-Khanadeq Media, operating from Lebanon, describes itself as an “independent analytical website focused on geostrategic, military, and security issues in Western Asia.” The outlet operates across multiple platforms, including a website, Telegram, and X channels, and various social media accounts (X, Instagram, YouTube) in Arabic, Hebrew, and English.

Al-Khanadeq maintains a fully functioning Hebrew-language website, launched at the beginning of 2024, as well as an active Telegram channel dedicated to Hebrew-speaking audiences. This dual-platform presence allows the outlet to distribute messaging in real time, respond quickly to developments inside Israel, and ensure that its content circulates directly among Israeli users without relying on intermediaries.

In an article announcing the launch of Al-Khanadeq Hebrew website, the outlet’s director, Dr. Muhammad Shams, explained the step as “a move to another arena of confrontation, addressing settlers in occupied Palestine in their own language, with precision in reporting, and revealing what security and military censorship conceals from their media outlets, through translating the site’s original content and producing new content in Hebrew.”

The article continues by stating that Al-Khanadeq believes the time has come to begin a new phase, shifting from defense to offense in the media arena. This, it argues, requires addressing the enemy in its own language and taking the battle directly to its home front. Choosing the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ war as the launch date for the Hebrew-language version, described as widely welcomed, was framed as the ideal timing to achieve the site’s goals.

Al-Khanadeq website in Hebrew

While it is not officially branded as “Hezbollah media” in the way Al-Manar is, its framing, partnerships, and thematic focus are clearly aligned with Hezbollah and broader Iranian regional narratives. Its director, Dr. Muhammad Shams, has also publicly expressed support for the “resistance” across his social media presence, both through the content he shares and the commentary he writes supporting its cause.

This type of non-official branding enables Hezbollah to influence Israeli discourse without being associated with its official outlets, such as Al-Manar, which Israelis would dismiss immediately.

Dr. Muhammad Shams’s X account regularly shares official Hezbollah content and expresses clear support for the resistance’s stance.

Target Audience

It should be noted that not all posts published in Arabic are translated into Hebrew, and vice versa. This selective translation underscores how the outlet tailors its messaging to target each audience effectively. The Arabic platforms, for example, feature significantly more content about Lebanon, Hezbollah, and regional developments, with extensive republishing of allied media material. In contrast, the Hebrew channel focuses almost exclusively on Israel and the West. The English website aims to shape international perception, present Hezbollah as rational, the Palestinian cause as just, and Israel as the aggressor. 

This selective publishing reinforces the strategy of shaping distinct narratives for each demographic audience. It shows a deliberate use of targeted influence: each group receives only the story tailored specifically to them, instead of one message that fits everyone.

Main campaigns identified in Al-Khanadeq’s Hebrew-language content

A review of Al-Khanadeq’s Hebrew-language output since its inception reveals a consistent set of themes designed to shape Israeli perceptions and amplify the strategic messaging of the “Axis of Resistance.” These narratives are crafted specifically for an Israeli audience, drawing on local news, social tensions, and political debates to reinforce a targeted influence campaign. 

The recurring message in most of the articles is that Israel and the US operate policies that are entirely designed to maintain supremacy and deny the Arab and Palestinian sides sovereignty, stability, representation, or ability to act, and only an opposing force can balance this. It appears in various forms in the articles: political, military, social, diplomatic, and psychological. 

The following highlights the key campaigns promoted across the Al-Khanadeq’s Hebrew platforms:

The US as an imperial sponsor shaping the world order in favor of Israel 

The core articles in this campaign center on the claim that Israel is no longer an independent state, but rather a proxy acting on behalf of the United States. According to this narrative, Israel has shifted from a sovereign actor to a state “economically and diplomatically dependent on Washington.” It is described as lacking genuine strategic autonomy, and the establishment of a U.S. military presence near Gaza is presented as a transition from mediation to direct American control over events in the Gaza Strip. This theme is repeatedly emphasized as evidence that Israel’s fate is ultimately determined in Washington, not Jerusalem.

The idea that Israel is a strategic subordinate to the US damages its image of deterrence and attempts to undermine internal public confidence. And above all, the message is that the US shapes international reality to serve its own interests and those of Israel, by leveraging its power globally and in international bodies. 

Israel is crumbling from within

Another persistent theme is internal fragmentation. Al-Khanadeq curates Israeli news items and reframes them as signs of systemic collapse across social, political, military, and economic domains. Examples include civil-military tensions, where debates between senior officials are framed as evidence that “the alliance between the army and the government is breaking down”; demographic anxiety, with claims that “80,000 Israelis left the country in 2024,” framed as a major strategic threat; social inequity, highlighted through alleged disparities in compensation to bereaved families and linked to broader patterns of inequality in military service, access to shelters, and social mobility; and erosion of public trust, where families’ frustrations are depicted as signs of declining societal cohesion and weakening state authority. 

Al-Khanadeq also frequently underscores economic stress, framing it as structural rather than temporary. It describes an economic slowdown initially attributed to wartime conditions as a deeper erosion of core growth pillars, particularly the tech sector, real estate, and credit markets. It argues that Israel’s ability to maintain its tax base, social resilience, and innovation capacity is steadily weakening, “even if censorship tries to conceal the details.”

By amplifying internal divisions and economic crisis, Al-Khanadeq seeks to accelerate social polarization, to present Israel as unstable, unsure of itself, unsure of its future. The goal is to break the “myth of Israeli military supremacy” in the Middle East and to position Israeli weakness as the basis for regional change.

Al-Khanadeq also ties this narrative to historical trauma, arguing that Israeli political behavior remains shaped by existential fears rooted in Holocaust memory and diaspora stories of collapse.

Al-Khanadeq (Hebrew) — Article Visual: “Economic Crisis in Israel”

Israel’s strategic failure in the military arena

Al-Khanadeq media showcase the “Al-Aqsa Flood” war as a turning point that exposes Israel’s strategic vulnerabilities. Across multiple articles, they present Israel as unable to achieve a decisive victory against Hamas or Hezbollah. Israeli actions are described as reactive and ineffective. For example, they argue that targeted killings fail to yield meaningful results because replacements are appointed quickly, and that Israel’s technological advantages are not producing strategic change. The overall message is that while Israel is a powerful military force, it is not an effective one.

They also present Israel as increasingly isolated. In this narrative, Israel’s vulnerabilities have brought the Palestinian issue back to the forefront of regional politics and exposed the setbacks in normalization efforts, especially the stalled talks with Saudi Arabia. By undermining Israel’s regional diplomacy, they argue, its strategic depth is weakened — reinforcing Iran’s claim that the “resistance axis” is actively reshaping regional power dynamics.

Israel’s new doctrine is a regional threat. The solution is force.

Al-Khanadeq media frames Israel’s post–October 7 security doctrine as a direct threat to regional stability and to collective Arab security. They describe Israel as manipulative, unconstrained by legal or normative boundaries, using negotiations primarily as a coercive tool. The narrative emphasizes that Israel leverages military, diplomatic, psychological, and informational power to pressure its adversaries.

The Arab side, they argue, needs force, not negotiations. Articles on Lebanon and Hezbollah repeat this idea consistently: negotiations signal weakness, negotiations with Israel are a trap, and without credible deterrence, no agreement has real meaning. The articles emphasize Hezbollah as an organization that continually rebuilds itself and remains fully prepared, positioning it as a force that defends “all of Lebanon,” not just its own interests. Its actions against Israel are framed as serving the strategic interests of the wider Arab region, rather than Lebanon alone.

Al-Khanadeq (X account in Hebrew) — Article Visual: “The occupation’s “concept of negotiations” is not a basis on which to rely.”

Conclusions

Al-Khanadeq functions as an instrument within Hezbollah’s broader influence warfare effort. Its Hebrew-language website and Telegram channel enable the outlet to bypass traditional media filters and engage audiences with messages engineered specifically for psychological impact.

A close reading of its publications reveals a deliberate strategy. The narratives promoted are consistently aligned with classical Axis of Resistance messaging. They are selected not to inform, but to exploit fault lines within Israeli society and to frame Israel as a state in structural decline. This is a form of cognitive warfare.

As for the effect on the Israeli audience, it is difficult to accurately assess its full impact, but one thing is clear: these themes do not appear only on Al-Khanadeq, they are echoed across coordinated messaging within the broader Axis of Resistance platforms. 

Ultimately, recognizing these mechanisms is essential for understanding how these actors exploit cyberspace and adapt their campaigns across linguistic, cultural, and geopolitical environments.