Israel pays for UK adverts attacking Doctors Without Borders

An injured Palestinian man carried into Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza (Abed Khaled / Alamy)

Benjamin Netanyahu’s effort to drive the medical charity out of Gaza is backed by an aggressive Israeli propaganda campaign in Britain.

By John McEvoy, Reposted from Declassified UK, January 22, 2026

Israel’s government is funding an advertisement campaign in Britain to attack medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Declassified can reveal.

MSF has provided crucial medical care to Palestinians throughout the Gaza genocide, with international and local staff working in hospitals across the besieged strip.

Transparency data shows the Israeli Government Advertising Agency is paying for an advert to appear as the top result on Google when users search for information about the charity.

The advert leads to an official Israeli report accusing MSF of “grave misconduct” in Gaza and behavior “that contradicts the fundamental ethics of international humanitarian action”.

The propaganda offensive comes as Israel seeks to limit the work of MSF and other humanitarian organizations in Gaza as part of its wider dismantling of life-saving services for Palestinians.

MSF’s registration to operate in Gaza and the West Bank has not been valid since the start of January and the organization says it might be forced to cease operations by 1 March.

Patients in Gaza have responded to the news with horror, with one saying: “If MSF stops working, people will lose their lives”.

MSF said in a statement: “We remain committed to providing assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and call on the Israeli authorities to reverse their decision… and to put in place acceptable operating conditions”.

The UK government is reportedly mulling reversing its arms suspensions to Israel, despite one of the core reasons for those suspensions being Israel’s restriction of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Israel’s efforts to propagandize the British public about MSF therefore appears to be in direct conflict with UK policy, and might reinforce arguments to keep the suspensions in place.

Declassified has asked the Israeli government to comment.

Paid advertisement

Israel’s advert has been appearing on Google in Britain when users search for “Doctors Without Borders”, “Médecins Sans Frontières”, or “MSF”.

The advert leads to a report on the “Systematic Conduct of Médecins Sans Frontières”, authored by an “Inter-Ministerial Team” in Israel and dated December 2025.

The report accuses MSF of authoring “official publications… that far exceed the bounds of legitimate criticism”, constituting “a deliberate campaign to undermine and deny the legitimacy of the State of Israel”.

This forms part of a “systematic pattern aimed at depriving Israel of its fundamental right to exist as a sovereign state and as a member of the international community”, the report says.

The Israeli government is particularly incensed by MSF’s use of the terms “genocidal war”, “genocide”, and “ethnic cleansing”.

It argues that “these terms do not constitute legitimate criticism of policy or military actions; rather, they attribute to the State of Israel an intent to systematically destroy a population”.

The UN Commission of Inquiry recently concluded that Israeli forces have been “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part”.

Israel’s report further alleges “indications of links” between MSF and “terrorist organizations” in Gaza including Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Similar accusations were made by Israel in 2023 in order to remove international support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, whose headquarters in East Jerusalem were bulldozed earlier this week.

MSF said: “By accusing MSF, as well as other NGOs, of not cooperating and creating smear campaigns against aid organizations, Israel is using unfounded allegations to arbitrarily restrict access to critical care for Palestinians and limit witnessing from independent organisations working on the ground”.

Francesca Albanese

The transparency data published by Google shows that the Israeli government has also been paying for adverts in Britain attacking UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

Albanese, one of the most outspoken advocates for Palestinian rights, recently told Declassified that UK ministers “must be investigated” over their role in the Gaza genocide.

This advert linked to an Israeli report saying “Albanese’s conduct… is fundamentally incompatible with the responsibilities and ethical standards of her mandate”.

It continued: “Albanese has repeatedly violated the norms of impartiality, universality, and professional integrity that are foundational to her UN mandate”.

Other publicity campaigns by Israel aimed at British audiences have sought to discredit UNRWA as well as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which declared famine in Gaza last August.

It is unclear how much the Israeli government has paid for the advertisements targeting British audiences, including the one attacking Doctors Without Borders.

Recent reports found Israel spent US$50m “on a deal with platforms such as Google” and other social media platforms “to deny famine in Gaza”, targeting several countries across Europe.

Declassified previously exposed how the Israeli government was paying social media companies to share videos in Britain which were designed to cultivate support for its war on Gaza.

John McEvoy is Chief Reporter for Declassified UK. John is an historian and filmmaker whose work focuses on British foreign policy and Latin America. His PhD was on Britain’s Secret Wars in Colombia between 1948 and 2009, and he is currently working on a documentary about Britain’s role in the rise of Augusto Pinochet.

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