Dubai: The image is dreadful. It captures shocking moments and dates back to October last year.
The picture shows a right-wing Israeli colonist accidentally hitting two Palestinian children with his car in occupied Jerusalem.
A few days ago, the picture surprisingly resurfaced on the Facebook page of the Subaru car company in Israel, with some words in Hebrew.
"We will see who will stand in front of you", the words read.
By Wednesday, the picture of the alleged advertisement was picked up by several Arabic-language newspapers and websites. Apart from the Palestinian media outlets, the story appeared in other Arab cities, including Beirut and Cairo.
"We have nothing to do with it," a spokesperson for the car company was quoted as saying. "We didn't put that ad on our official website."
The ad was immediately removed once "noticed" on the company's Facebook page, sources told Gulf News. The car company has also asked another Palestinian media outlet to remove it from its website, but the latter refused, the sources said privately.
While it was not immediately clear who is behind the fake car ad, many believe it is part of the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. But this time, on the internet.
"There is a tough cyber warfare going between the two for some time now," said Khalil Assali, a Palestinian columnist and analyst.
The cyber warfare resulted in websites being knocked offline.
Servers attacked
Two Palestinian websites went dead after their servers were attacked recently, noted Assali, who is based in occupied Jerusalem. Several days passed before the two websites were up again.
A few weeks ago, the picture of a Palestinian killed by Israeli forces was posted on the website of the Israeli Defence Ministry. The websites of the Ministry of foreign affairs and some of the Israeli universities were also attacked.
The cyber warfare intensified after the Gaza flotilla raid on May 31, 2010.
On that day Israeli commandos stormed a convoy of ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip. Several people were killed, and tens of activists were arrested and detained in Israel before being deported following the raid, which was widely condemned by the international community.
The Israeli-Turkey relations were also strained.
Subaru cars have been popular in Israel for many years as they were the first Japanese-made cars to be sold in Israel during the boycott years. Later, other Japanese-made cars entered Israeli markets.
