Hamas claimed Saturday night that it had kidnapped an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldier in northern Gaza; however, the IDF said no soldier had been kidnapped, and the “evidence” was immediately debunked on social media.
The claim was announced by the notorious Hamas spokesman, Abu Obeida, who is something of a cult hero to anti-Israel activists around the world. The announcement was reportedly broadcast live on Al Jazeera’s Arabic network.
Hamas claimed to have ambushed IDF soldiers in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, an area of repeated clashes.
However, the IDF immediately said that no soldiers had been abducted: “The IDF clarifies that there is no incident in which a soldier was abducted.”
Abu Ali Express, an Israeli channel on Telegram that monitors the Arabic media, mocked Hamas’s claims with a debunking of the supposed “evidence” that had been broadcast:
Abu Obaida’s statement was received with a burst of joy among the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, as well as in Lebanon, Yemen and other places where there is a high concentration of “Zionist fans”. In Lebanon, crowds went out for joyous processions. Fireworks were set off.
They all ignored the unequivocal statement of the IDF spokesperson, which came out about ten minutes after Abu Obaida’s statement and stated: There is no incident of kidnapping a soldier.
Those who did comment on the IDF spokesperson’s statement were the Fatah supporters on social media who mocked Hamas and Abu Obaida for the imaginary statement and added: He will probably get an invitation to direct Indian action films after the war…
In the opinion of the Fatah supporters, several things are missing from Abu Obaida’s statement:
There is no name of the abductee, no identity card, no personal number, no photo, no weapon number, no record of his face, no IDF uniform…According to them, this is part of the “hay” that Abu Obaida sells to his flock… and the ones who will now pay for it in blood are the Gazans because the IDF will have justification to increase its operations in Jabaliya.
Channels that support the activities of Hamas have also stated that Hamas will have to provide explanations about the type of non-IDF weapons shown in the video…
At the same time, the absolute majority of Gazans and Palestinians simply continue, even now, with the celebrations and accept Abu Obaida’s words as unequivocal truth.
Abu Ali Express showed some of the footage of Palestinians abroad apparently celebrating the unsubstantiated news:
— AbuAliEnglish (@AbuAliEnglishB1) May 26, 2024
The apparently fake kidnapping could be an effort by Hamas to shore up support as it continues to lose to the IDF — and as the IDF closes in on its last stronghold in Rafah, in addition to areas of sporadic clashes in northern Gaza.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
