Social media in the Gaza Strip was in an uproar on Monday after it was reported the day before that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had shot down a drone that belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Last Friday, armed PFLP operatives shot down a drone that had been spotted flying near their outpost in Khan Younis in the northern Gaza Strip.
The organization rushed to announce that it had shot down an Israeli drone and promised it would make public footage showing its “heroic action.” The celebrations didn’t last for long, however.
On Sunday evening, Gaza-based media outlets reported that the drone belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and not Israel. Later, reports said that Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules Gaza, had collected the pieces of the downed drone and was asking that other terrorist organizations active in Gaza coordinate drone activity with Hamas.
The PFLP proceeded to delete the posts bragging about having successfully intercepted an Israeli drone.
Gazans took to Twitter to mock both the error and the group’s response.
“God help us, it’s lucky they didn’t try to kidnap a soldier,” one user wrote.
The PFLP rushed to remind the public that it was behind the hijacking of the Sabena aircraft in the 1960s, but even that remark was met with humor.
“Maybe they should go back to hijacking passenger aircraft, we’d be happy to get a flight to the Maldives,” another user wrote.
This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.
