Israel sending propaganda texts to mobile phones

Israel is directing a multimedia propaganda campaign at the besieged people of southern Lebanon as it battles with Hizbullah.

Israel is directing a multimedia propaganda campaign at the besieged people of southern Lebanon as it battles with Hizbullah.

Mobile phone users are being bombarded with text messages and phone calls, and a radio station has begun broadcasting reports from the Israeli government's point of view.

Early on Friday morning the residents of Tyre were woken by a recorded message on their mobile phone voice-mails, warning all those living south of the Litani river to leave immediately or risk being killed. The voice reading the message signed off: "the state of Israel."

Each day Israeli aircraft drop "propaganda bombs", which burst to send leaflets fluttering down on to streets and rooftops.

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Leaflets dropped yesterday morning described the Hizbullah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, as a coward who hid in a cave while the Lebanese people suffered the consequences of his actions. "He has attacked Arab leaders and ignored the international community; is this what you want for Lebanon?" it asked.

An earlier leaflet depicted Nasrallah as a cobra rising up out of a jar. Sitting around him on a map of Lebanon were Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal, and Syria's president Bashar Assad, each playing a snake charmer's flute. In the cartoon, Nasrallah asks them: "What can I do for you?"

Meanwhile mobile phone users regularly receive messages sent to their phones which appear as news updates, attempting to discredit Nasrallah or the party he leads. Titled "News", a message sent early yesterday reported that the Hizbullah leader had prepared a secure bunker for himself and other senior Hizbullah officials to flee to in Syria.

The Israeli forces have also resurrected the old Voice of Lebanon radio station, once operated by Israel's military ally the South Lebanon Army before it was defeated by Hizbullah in 2000.