It was a bizarre international prank -- and it's got an Indian connection.

The Turkish media broke a story on Saturday that an Indian-Israeli Mossad agent, Amit Nakesh, was the assassin who staged the daring killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last Wednesday.

Inevitably, the news of an Indian-Israeli secret agent assassin with a licence to kill made for sensational headlines and Turkish journalists went hunting for more gripping details. One newspaper, Akdeniz Gerçek Gazetesi, gleefully reported that Nakesh had done his Israel's military service and then joined Mossad, Israel's secret service.

Tossing in more juicy information, it reported that Nakesh was an expert in assassinations and recruiting intelligence sources and had taken part in several operations against "elements that Israel considers hostile".

But as the details spilled out, it became clear there was only one overwhelming problem: it was a hoax on a global scale. And it was put out by Israeli social media pranksters and meme artists.

Israelis got the joke almost instantly because the supposed Indian name of the killer, Amit Nakesh, bears an extremely close resemblance to the Hebrew word "hamitnakesh" which means "the assassin". Turkish journalists, not having had the benefit of knowing Hebrew, were obviously much slower to catch on to this.

The Indian media, which would normally have leapt onto a colourful story of an Indian-origin person being involved in assassinations, also had the advantage of being slow to catch on. Thus, they had enough time to be forewarned by the Israeli press and social media which were delightedly reporting on the hoax.

The Turks, The Times of Israel reported, quickly wiped out all stories about Amit Nakesh, but not before Israeli media social media actors had made plenty of fun at their expense. One person even launched an account on X under the name Amit Nakesh. The imaginary assassin also added he was a friend of another social media creation 'Eli Copter' whom they claimed was responsible for downing Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

Israeli social media players frequently put out fake news about Israeli derring-do. The Times of Israel:said they were always quick to put up "prank posts about the amazing exploits of made-up Israeli soldiers and Mossad agents and giving them punny names to match".

The Israeli pranksters probably had an extra reason for feeling pleased about pushing the Turkish media onto the back foot. Relations between the two countries have plunged to a new low triggered byTurkish anger over Israel's killing in Gaza. President Recep Erdogan has actually threatened to invade Israel to seek to bring the deadly war in Gaza to an end. The Israeli foreign minister responded by saying Turkey should be thrown out of Nato.

Erdogan wants dogs massacred

Erdogan has been making some strange political moves in recent weeks. He ordered that Instagram be blocked in the country after the social media site blocked users posting messages mourning the killing of the Hamas chief but soon afterwards put up a message on the social media site which had to be quickly deleted.

More unpleasantly, Erdogan's government has just passed a law decreeing that the millions of stray dogs living on Turkey's streets should be exterminated. The Turkish Opposition has vowed to fight what it called the 'massacre law' tooth and nail.