During a memorial service on Saturday for seven Hamas militants killed when the tunnel they were in collapsed on them, Hamas rolled out what it called a “locally-produced” tank it said was fashioned out of an Israel Defense Forces’ tank captured two years ago.
However, a number of observers, both Palestinian and Israeli, noticed that there was something odd about the armored fighting machine which a Hamas spokesman warned would be used on the “path of jihad.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Ofir Gendelman pointed out that the contraption appeared to be a mockup constructed of wood placed atop another vehicle whose wheels could be spotted poking out of the bottom. Others suggested the gun turret was actually a sewage pipe.
The pro-Israel Elder of Ziyon blog reported that a poster was created by Hamas’ rival Fatah mocking the tank display. The poster stated: “Can they excite the feelings of their supporters with … sewer pipes and fiberglass panels?”