A group of Gazans cut through the border fence and entered Israel without being immediately caught a number of weeks ago, according to a video released by the group which began circulating online on Wednesday.
During the video, blaring macho-sounding music, the Gazans portray themselves as having cut through the fence in multiple spots and as victorious in having entered Israeli territory without having been caught.
However, the video does not show that during the incident, which in fact occurred around two months ago, the Palestinians in question did not approach an additional much more well-defended fence about 100-200 meters away.
In other words, the fence the recorded Gazans cut through is an unmanned fence signalling a no-man’s land security zone leading to the larger fence which is heavily manned by IDF troops.
Further, the video does not show that at the same time that these Palestinians were cutting the fence at a safe distance from IDF troops, other Palestinians were engaging IDF troops at a closer range and were being dispersed by tear gas and tanks.
Put differently, the Palestinians featured in the video are actually farther away from the “action” than many of the other Palestinians involved.
IDF: Palestinian video made for self-promotion, not terrorism
According to the IDF, the goal of those who filmed the video was not to perpetrate terrorism but to promote themselves internally within Gaza as having accomplished something against Israel at a time when Gaza’s terrorist groups have recently achieved very little.
The IDF added that those featured in the video fled once the IDF approached the area.
In May, Israel launched a targeted operation killing a line of top Islamic Jihad leaders, with the terror group achieving almost no substantive revenge goals in response.