TEL AVIV — The IDF engaged in psychological warfare Sunday by staging a fake evacuation of “bloodied” soldiers from an APC military vehicle hit by Hezbollah, in an apparent attempt to deter the terror group from escalating the violence in the northern border any further.

An IDF helicopter arrived at the scene and dramatically whisked off the soldiers, who appeared to be bleeding and bandaged, to Rambam hospital in Haifa. The hospital later said the soldiers were released and did not receive any medical care.

Earlier Sunday, Hezbollah fired several anti-tank guided missiles at an army base and struck a military APC in northern Israel in an apparent reprisal for an Israeli attack in Syria that saw two of the terror group’s operatives killed.

Israel retaliated by firing at around a hundred Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon.

(נדרשתי לצייץ מחדש) תרגיל ההונאה שצהל נקט אחה״צ: המסוק לא פינה פצועים כי לא היו פצועים. הפינוי המוסק כולו תוכנן מראש כפעולת הונאה, שמטרתה לגרום לחיזבאללה לחשוב שהצליח לפגוע בחיילים. שימו לב לרמת ההפקה pic.twitter.com/EYWuUNdt2p — רועי שרון Roy Sharon (@roysharon11) September 1, 2019

The trick apparently worked and Lebanese media soon reported on a successful operation by the Iran-backed terror group. Later, after Hezbollah claimed to have wounded four Israeli soldiers, the military announced that no one had been harmed.

“At 4:15pm, a squad named after Hassan Zineb and Yasser Daher (two Hezbollah operatives who were killed in an IDF attack in Syria last week) destroyed two IDF vehicles in the Avivim region. There are casualties and fatalities in the event,” Hezbollah said.

Later, the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen news outlet reported, “There are reports that Israel’s main concern is evacuating any casualties from the area — there are four wounded on Israel’s side.”

Naim Qassem, the terror group’s deputy secretary-general, said: “Hezbollah was able to show its true strength today. We forced Israel into new rules of engagement, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a kill for a kill. Hezbollah wants to keep its deterrence and rules of engagement; we are on a winning road, both declarative and practically.”

The fake evacuation was not the first time Israel has employed decoys as a means of deterrence. Just last week, Lebanese media reported on IDF vehicles parked along the northern border with dummies in IDF uniforms inside.