Politically interested individuals following the Near East conflict surely have heard of the Israeli „Defence“ Forces (IDF) calling itself the „most moral army“ in the world.
This arrogant act of self-praise has often been uncritically repeated by Israelis and non-Israelis likewise.

In this context, the IDF has at times been forced to make great efforts to conceal acts and statements that were in clear contradiction to the self-given label that is otherwise impossible to prove objectively.

To achieve this, the IDF has resorted to a matrix of reactions that can be summatized as a public deception strategy with the aim to exonerate the IDF from obvious crimes it has been accused of.

The matrix consists of following elements:
deny and reject (the war crime or atrocity)
distract (by bringing up unrelated issues)
defame (the victims) and belittle the crime
delay the eventual confession of truth until public attention has dimished or has been diverted

Some better known examples:
The Qana massacre in Lebanon, 1996 – 106 civilians were killed when the IDF shelled a compound, a UN battalion headquarters for 18 years, well-marked on Israeli maps, and bearing white and black UN signs.
When confronted with having had knowledge of the location of the compound and the presence of civilians, the IDF first denied the reconaissance drone that it had operated and then distracted from it´s role by claiming it was on a different mission.
Here´s a link about the UN findings:
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/08/world/un-report-suggests-israeli-attack-was-not-a-mistake.html

Killing civilians- During the 2018 „Great March of Return“ IDF snipers killed and injured thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, from behind the security fence; „including 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics and 115 journalists„
„The nature of these injuries shows that Israeli soldiers are using high-velocity military weapons designed to cause maximum harm to Palestinian protesters who do not pose an imminent threat to them.“
One of the victims, „21-year-old Razan al-Najjar, Palestinian paramedic, was shot in the chest and killed by Israeli sniper fire while providing first aid to injured protesters at the Gaza/Israel fence east of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Razan was wearing her white coat, clearly identifiable as a medic.“
Here, the IDF resorted to the distract, defame and belittle strategies: Victims were recklessly called Hamas members or sympathisizers, while the protests were called „border riots“ and the killings were named „clashes„

The killing of Al Jazeera journalist and US citizen Shireen Abu Akhleh
Time magazine wrote, that short after the news of the journalists killing was spread, Israeli authorities „decided to circulate a video of a Palestinian gunmen shooting indiscriminately from inside the Jenin refugee camp and blame them for the Al Jazeera reporter’s death. But its strategy fell flat when another video revealed that Abu Akleh died nowhere near there.“
A monthlong investigation by The New York Times found that the bullet that killed Ms. Abu Akleh had been fired from the approximate location of an Israeli military convoy earlier that morning, most likely by a soldier from an elite unit, corroborating witness reports from the site.
The Guardian reported that Israel announced to not cooperate with the FBI.
Finally, 4 months later in September 2022, Israel concluded it is ‘highly possible’ one of its soldiers killed Shireen Abu Akleh.

Targeted (intentional) killing of foreign aid workers
The most recent case and a particularly ruthless and shameless one was the attack on the convoy of World Central Kitchen. While Israel tried to deny having attacked the convoy deliberately, it turned out that 7 WCK workers had been killed when three cars of their convoy were each hit by Israeli missiles over a distance of 2.5 Km.
„Two of the SUVs traveling Monday were armored and bore the frying pan logo on the roof“.

When the Israeli military killed a 12 year old boy, Muhammad Al-Durrah next to his horrified and badly wounded father, Israeli officials claimed the film by France 2 channel showing the killing of the boy was staged.
As with many similar cases, the Israeli denials and fake allegations were dishonest and spin themselves according to The Guardian.

In many instances, the western press played the inglorious role of casting doubt over Israeli crimes („supposedly attacked…“) and shielding Israel by little credible claims like „Israeli authorities are investigating the allegations“, as if past investigations ever led to serious repercussions for Israeli perpetrators of atrocities and human rights abuses.