Israel’s diplomatic mission to the US has posted a taunting meme depicting Keanu Reeves from The Matrix in response to an Iranian tweet warning ‘time is up’.
The online exchange came as real-world tensions in the Middle East reached new heights, with President Joe Biden visiting Israel on an urgent mission to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a broader regional conflict.
When did Israel-Hamas war started?
The war that began October 7 with an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel left more than 1,400 Israelis dead, with at least 199 others, including children, abducted and held hostage in Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,000 injured in airstrikes over the past 11 days, with casualties expected to rise as Israel prepares for a possible ground assault.
The online taunts
Iran, a key backer of Hamas, celebrated the group’s brutal attack on Israel, including with gloating posts on the social media platform X, where Tehran’s embassy in Syria posted the ‘time is up’ message in Hebrew, clearly directing it at Israelis.
Israel’s embassy in the US responded with the taunting meme showing Reeves’ character Neo from the 1999 film The Matrix.
The animated image depicts Neo motioning with a beckoning gesture, which occurred during the movie’s subway fight scene with the villain Agent Smith.
That fight ended with Neo’s retreat, although by the end of the movie he defeated Smith.
Iran provides arms and support to Hamas, as well as the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, which has exchanged rocket volleys with Israel in recent days.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are designated terror groups by the US and EU. The online taunts between Israel and Iran came as the situation in the real world remained deadly serious.
Biden backed Israel
Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday in a show of support for the key US ally, and in a bid to prevent the violence from spreading further.
But a planned peace summit in Jordan between Biden and leaders from Israel and the Palestinian territories was called off after an explosion at a Gaza hospital left hundreds dead on Tuesday night.
Jordan’s King Abdullah would have hosted the four-way summit, but blamed Israel for the deadly hospital blast, and angrily called off the talks.
Israel released what it says are intercepted audio communications that show Hamas fighters attributing the attack to a misfired rocket launched by Islamic Jihad, an allied militant group in Gaza.
Biden has publicly backed Israel’s attribution of responsibility for the hospital explosion, saying the Pentagon showed him evidence Israeli forces were not behind it.
