Adraee’s Islamic-based message reached hostage-holders, undermining Hamas propaganda and saving Israeli lives.
In a remarkable revelation before the Knesset’s Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy subcommittee on Tuesday, IDF Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee disclosed that a targeted awareness video produced in Arabic succeeded in influencing Hamas terrorists who were holding Israeli hostages inside Gaza.
According to Adraee, the video was crafted using an unconventional approach: integrating Islamic religious motifs to counter Hamas’s manipulation of Jewish texts.
“One of the tools we used was the combination of religious motifs and Islamic motifs,” he explained. “This was an out-of-the-box method—and I recommend expanding its use.”
The initiative began after Hamas released a propaganda video citing Jewish halachic debates on the redemption of captives. In response, Adraee and his team developed an Arabic-language video presenting Islam’s own moral injunctions on how captors must behave toward hostages—directly challenging Hamas on its home ideological turf.
“It was a very sensitive discourse,” Adraee noted. “We decided to release a video explaining how Islam commands humane treatment of captives. It had very specific intended recipients.”
The impact exceeded expectations. Adraee recounted that when he met two recently freed hostages, both voluntarily mentioned the film and described its surprising effect on their captors.
“One of them told me that the terrorist said, ‘Adraee speaks Arabic better than we do.’”
This revelation highlights not only the moral bankruptcy of Hamas but also the power of strategic public diplomacy when executed with cultural intelligence and religious authenticity.
Adraee, who announced his retirement from the IDF last month, is concluding nearly 20 years of distinguished service, during which he became the most influential Israeli voice speaking directly to the Arab world—undermining terror narratives and exposing the truth behind Hamas’s abuses.
