Israeli military puts Hamas on notice via Twitter

{mosads}Israel’s Defense Forces turned to Twitter to confirm that an official military campaign was in progress in Gaza on Thursday and continued to send out updates, including the news that Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari had been killed in what a tweet called a “pinpoint strike.”

The official IDF Twitter account blasted out the news before a press conference was held, ensuring that Israeli leadership controlled how people heard the news. The tweet also represented the release of a video of the strike itself hosted on YouTube. The black and white video offers a first person, birds-eye view of an exploding car that reportedly contained Jabari.

Jabari is the most senior official of Hamas killed by the Israelis in four years, according to The New York Times.

Israel’s President Simon Peres then posted on his Facebook page that he spoke with President Obama to update him on the situation Wednesday afternoon.

Peres’s statement to Obama was similar to the remarks he posted on his Facebook page, according to multiple Israeli newspapers.

“There are limits to what Israel is able to absorb,” he wrote. “Our intension is not to raise the flames, but already for days, day and night, they are shooting rockets at Israel. Mothers and their children cannot fall asleep [sic].”

The IDF is also using Twitter to proactively defend their actions,
tweeting that the military strike follows a year in which Palestinian
terrorists based in the Gaza strip have fired 768 rockets into Israel.

According to the IDF account, the military action is known as “Operation Pillar of Defense.”

The IDF continues to use Twitter to push out an aggressive message making their intention to continue “a widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives in the Gaza Strip, chief among them Hamas & Islamic Jihad targets.” The military campaign also involves the Israeli Navy.

All options are on the table. If necessary, the IDF is ready to initiate a ground operation in Gaza.

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 14, 2012

A statement from Hamas quoted by the Times blasts Israel’s action as “a dangerous crime” and the basis for a “declaration of war.” Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, tweeted that Israel had opened the gates of hell through the IDF’s actions.

@idfspokesperson Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves)

— Alqassam Brigades (@AlqassamBrigade) November 14, 2012

Updated at 2:43 p.m.