The IDF posted what appeared to be a bathroom selfie of a young woman on its social media accounts and, while it claimed the posts were actually part of some online 4D chess with Hamas, many on Twitter simply weren’t buying it.
According to the Israeli military, the steamy selfie was, in fact, part of Operation Rebound, a joint effort between the IDF and the Shin Bet security service to take down a sophisticated ‘catfishing’ campaign by arch nemesis Hamas.
Hamas created fake social media profiles, using photos including this one, in an attempt to hack the phones of IDF soldiers.What Hamas didn’t know was that Israeli intelligence caught onto their plot, tracked the malware & downed Hamas’ hacking system.#CatfishCaught
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 16, 2020
Apparently, it was the third such cyberattack by Hamas, who tricked horny IDF servicemen into downloading spyware onto their phones by posing as young Israeli women on social media, promising to send nudes.
The IDF does not believe Hamas gained any significant intelligence, though it admitted it will be checking the phones of all troops targeted as a precaution. The number of affected devices is reportedly in the “low hundreds.”
However, the IDF’s attempt at edgy social media posting backfired entirely as a quick-witted Twitter user twisted it in a clever cover-up quip that has racked up over 20,000 likes.
“Have you ever just logged into the wrong account and blamed it on Hamas,” Maxi Gothling wrote.
The joke sparked a flood of replies neatly summarizing the situation and alluding to the IDF’s actions in Palestine.