Fact-check: Did Hamas create a website boasting about massacring Israeli civilians?

(Warning: Some external links in this article contain graphic imagery)

Gruesome images and videos of torture, burnt bodies, and dead children… These are the shocking clips posted on what many social media users claim is Hamas’s official website: hamas.com. (We are not hyperlinking due to the extremely graphic nature of this website).

The website also shows a civilian casualty count, including how many “Zionist children have been murdered” since the group attacked Israel on 7 October. 

The website has been widely shared by the State of Israel’s Twitter account and by other officials such as the Israeli government spokesperson.

But when digging deeper, we found many elements that conclude this website was not created by Hamas. 

In fact, it’s a website aimed at exposing the atrocities committed by the Gaza-based group. 

The first thing we found strange is that only pro-Israeli accounts were sharing this alleged ‘official website’ not accounts close to Hamas. 

Moreover, the content on the website is not in line with Hamas’s official statements. The website proudly boasts the death of civilians since the attack carried out on 7 October. 

But the group’s leaders still to this day refuse to acknowledge the killing of innocent people in Israel, despite evidence to the contrary. 

In the section explaining the group’s goals claims that all “non-Muslims are viewed as infidels and targets for assassination” and that Hamas’s goal was to use “deceptive narratives” in order to “overthrow secular governments,” — an odd way for Hamas to describe themselves.

A domain name created in 1999 and mostly inactive

The website’s domain name was created in 1999 and was up for sale multiple times. It has mostly been inactive. 

This new and shocking version was only updated later in November 2023.

Who is behind this website? It’s hard to tell but what is strange is that the site’s creator used Wix.com, an Israeli-based website-hosting service.

This led a number of Israeli media to claim people attempting to promote Israel’s political agenda were behind this website. 

Haaretz, an Israeli media said the website was “hijacked by Israelis turning it into a display of October 7 atrocities.” 

But this still doesn’t explain why this website was created. Moreover, Wix.com is a global company and has offices all around the world so anyone can create a website without being affiliated with Israel. 

Does Hamas have an official website? It does but it uses the Palestinian extension .ps at the end instead of .com. 

According to internet archives, the official website looked very different to this one in September 2023. It has been offline since then without any explanation as to why.