Israel dropped leaflets on Gaza? Um, no.

Ma'an breathlessly reports:

Israeli planes threw thousands of leaflets onto border areas of the Gaza Strip overnight, residents reported, as they woke up to read a paper saying "Await the response tomorrow." statements during the night on different areas on the borders between Gaza and Israel.

The paper pictured a child carrying a flower, with the Arabic phrase, Intdhar al-rud ghada in script over top.

Witnesses said the warnings were dropped in several places, including east of Khan Younis where Friday violence killed two resistance fighters and two Israeli soldiers. Other pamphlets were reportedly dropped in the Johr Ad-Dik area on the eastern border of the central Strip.

An Israeli military spokesman said he was unfamiliar with any such action in Gaza.

The story is illustrated with a picture of a leaflet dropped during Cast Lead.

So, does it make any sense that Israel would drop leaflets with such vague threats? The only way one can believe this is if one is already predisposed to the idea that the IDF's main job is to terrorize Gazans for fun.

And, in fact, the story is completely unfounded. The Islamic Jihad-aligned Palestine Today investigated the rumors and found them to be false.

The Palestinian Arab press is quick to publish false rumors and lies as facts, as I have documented dozens of times. As in this story, these rumors are very often said to be corroborated by "witnesses."