Hamas Saving Omran Daqneesh Syria Photos For Next War With Israel

“Oh my gosh, this is perfect,” remarked Ali Masri, who coordinates some of the organization’s online activities.

Aleppo, August 18 – Images of a bleeding, dust-covered, five-year-old Syrian boy from this embattled ancient city have resonated internationally, highlighting the ongoing misery wrought by the country’s five-year-old civil war and leading the Hamas movement to store the image in case it needs to use it to generate international sympathy in any future war with Israel.

Omran was rescued from the ruins of his home that had been shelled by troops loyal to President Basher Assad in a strike that killed several other people, including children. Video of his rescue and its immediate aftermath – when the boy, still evidently in shock, wiped his head with his hand and discovered it a bloody mess – went viral on social media and news sites. Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip noticed the popularity of the clip, and realized how perfectly it could serve the movement’s public relations interests the next time Israel acts militarily to neutralize the rockets and infiltrators launched at its communities from the coastal territory.

“Oh my gosh, this is perfect,” remarked Ali Masri, who coordinates some of the organization’s online activities. “Imagine the effect on the international community when Israel hits some target or other, and regardless of its military value, we trot out these pictures of a poor, innocent, dusty, and bloodied five-year-old sitting in the back of an ambulance. It won’t matter to anyone that the images are from Syria – people are already primed to believe anything barbaric and evil about Israel, thanks in no small part to media efforts of this nature.”

Masri and his two-man staff maintain a photo and video bank collected from various conflict zones for the specific purpose of using them to defame Israel and generate international pressure. “We have no real hope of defeating the IDF in direct battle, so we have to use other means,” he explained. “Everyone knows truth is the first casualty of war, so we decided, well, we might as well embrace that.” He cited examples of the conflicts in 2012 and 2014, when images of carnage and destruction from as far away as West Africa were marshaled and relabeled as the result of Israeli actions.

This time, however, Masri believes they hit the jackpot. “The images of that Syrian kid have a visceral power that most others lack, and I can’t wait to give it some heart-wrenching caption as if it depicts the outcome of an IDF strike,” he gushed. “We’ll just have to make sure not to use it too soon, or too many people will remember where it actually came from.”