Red Triangle Emoji 🔻 / Hamas Symbol

About

Red Triangle Emoji🔻 or Hamas Red Triangle Symbol refers to the use of the red triangle emoji and iconography in the context of the 2023 Israel-Hamas Conflict. Hamas' military wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (IQB) shared propaganda videos in October and November 2023, soon after Israel began a ground invasion of Gaza. In Hamas' videos, their fighters can be seen attacking Israeli tanks and soldiers, often at close range, with the footage indicating the vehicle's location using a red triangular marker (similar to an enemy icon or ping in a video game). The red marker is also seen as a reference to the Palestinian flag, which notably contains a red triangle. In November 2023 following the videos spreading online, various internet users posted memes showing a red triangle above Israeli troops and used it as an exploitable, while others noted how the triangle had become a symbol of resistance for some Palestine supporters.

Origin

The 2023 Hamas-Israel Conflict began on October 7th, 2023, with Israel launching a ground invasion of Gaza on October 27th, 2023.^[1] On November 2nd, 2023, Hamas' military wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades reportedly posted a video to Telegram purportedly showing a fighter blowing up two Israeli tanks, attacking one by placing a 105mm al-Yassin explosive shell on it by hand. A frame showing a red triangle being used to draw attention to a frame in the video can be accessed below via reupload^[2] (seen below).

Another such clip was posted to Al Jazeera Arabic's X^[4] account on November 4th, gathering over 40,000 likes in five days (seen below). The video similarly shows a red triangle being used to indicate the location of Israeli soldiers.

#الجزيرة تحصل على صور تظهر استهداف كتائب القسام دبابات وآليات إسرائيلية توغلت شمال #غزة#حرب_غزة#الأخبار pic.twitter.com/PYCZDn3bj3

— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) November 4, 2023

A clip posted by X^[5] account @IranObserver on November 8th showed more Hamas propaganda footage, this time showing a fighter shooting at a tank at close range with an RPG. The post gathered over 5,000 likes in less than 24 hours (seen below).

Hamas published another video of the ongoing battle with the invading Israeli forces

Hamas will end up destroying more Israeli armored vehicles than Hezbollah did in the 2006 war pic.twitter.com/i0tJuZlfhq

— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) November 8, 2023

On November 8th, Hamas' al-Qassam Brigade released a poster showing a red triangle destroying a Namer APC, and another showing the red triangle in the Palestinian flag pointing to a Merkava tank.^[10]

Online Reactions

In early November 2023 following the IQB's propaganda material featuring the red triangle symbol, numerous social media users began to spread it online, often using the Red Triangle emoji in their posts and memes.^[11] For example, on November 8th, 2023, X^[6] user @MustBeTheHero reposted the posters saying, "TANKS ARE NO MATCH FOR THE RED TRIANGLE 🔻🔻🔻," while X^[7] user @Aldanmarki noted "how quickly" al-Qassam Brigade appeared to latched onto online trends (seen below, left).

On November 7th, X^[8] user @jackfromohio posted a Mr Krabs Shaking meme with the caption, "When you’re driving through Gaza and a red triangle appears above you 🔻."

On November 8th, X^[9] user @_hiima posted an image showing red triangles above two Israeli soldiers, gathering over 5,000 likes in a day (seen below, left). On November 9th, X^[3] user @One_Dawah posted an image of a red triangle, saying, "Israel's biggest fear," gathering over 3,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References