Jerusalem: An image of Israelis in Sderot, gathered on a hill to watch and celebrate Gaza being bombed, has gone viral on Twitter. The photo posted by a Danish journalist caused uproar online.
Allan Sorensen, the Middle Eastern correspondent for the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad, said that he took the image on Wednesday in Sderot, a city about two kilometers from Gaza.
The picture, which was snapped by Danish journalist and subsequently posted on his Twitter feed, shows Israelis relaxing on lawn chairs while in the background lights emanate from the heavily bombarded Gaza Strip.
“Sderot cinema,” Sorensen tweeted. “Israelis bringing chairs 2 hilltop in Sderot 2 watch latest from Gaza. Clapping when blasts are heard.”
The image was retweeted over 8,000 times as of Saturday afternoon, with many reacting with shock and disgust.
The picture sparked confusion and outrage among social media users, with many questioning the morality of making a scene of murder a public spectacle and celebrating it.
"Shame on them. Those lights are killing inocent people!", Muly tweeted on his Twitter account.
"That is just inhumane, abominable and disgusting. Shame on you, Israel", John M. Gallardo tweeted @MacJuanma.
One more user commented that people like those in the picture were “encouraging a culture of death.”
The newspaper’s follow-up article on Friday described the scene in details where over 50 people had gathered for a “party.”
“The hill has been transformed into something that most closely resembles the front row of a reality war theatre. It offers a direct view of the densely populated Gaza Strip,” wrote the paper’s Middle Eastern correspondent Nikolaj Krak.
The article said that while the majority of the 25,000 residents of Sderot hid in their homes in fear of another attack from Gaza, others brought chairs and sofas to watch Israeli night airstrikes while enjoying pop-corn, hookah and chit-chatting.
"We are here to see Israel destroy Hamas,” Eli Chone, a 22-year-old American living in Israel told Kristeligt Dagblad. He then pointed to a dot of light in the sky explaining that, “it is a fighter who is about to dive. This means that it is about to shoot."
Following the airstrike the spectators on the hill started cheering, and “solid applause” followed, the Danish correspondent wrote.
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