Polarized Narratives in Digital Spaces: A Social Network Examination of the Gaza Conflict

The conflict in the Gaza Strip involving Israel and Palestine has persistently drawn global attention over recent decades, presenting significant geopolitical and humanitarian challenges. This struggle extends beyond the physical confrontations in Gaza into the digital environment, particularly on social media platform X. The research focused on exploring public opinion on platforms related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with data collection from November 20, 2023, to November 30, 2023. During this period, the collection of data amounted to 132019 tweets. The research uses various search terms related to the Gaza conflict situation in the Middle East. The polarization between these factions is quantified at a high magnitude, with the boundary between two communities methodology used as a metric for polarization index measurement, highlighting the pronounced disparity in viewpoints. The qualitative assessment highlights the pro-Israel group emphasizing solidarity and blaming Hamas, while the pro-Palestine contingent condemned Israeli actions. The social network analysis illustrated the role of social media in reinforcing geopolitical divides and the importance of developing strategies to promote reasoned dialogue in fragmented digital environments. The research contributes to this field by specifically focusing on digital polarization around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a topic that often generates global debate. Unlike other research on polarization that may broadly examine political or social divisions, this research focuses on a highly contentious geopolitical issue, offering insight into how digital discourse reflects and amplifies real-world tensions. The study reveals a deeply polarized digital space concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, with network analysis indicating strong internal cohesion within pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups, and a qualitative analysis showing distinct narratives reinforcing this polarization.