Jerusalem: Hamas and Israel still exchange fire with sporadic rocket attacks and airstrikes in their long-running military standoff along the Gaza border, but the two sides are also engaged in something of an arms race on social media.

The Israeli military said on Sunday it had foiled a "catfishing" attempt to gain access to soldiers' phones, at least the third instance since 2017 in which it said Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, had tried to dupe its troops by posing as Israeli women seeking romance.

A masked member of Hamas at a protest against the Mid East plan announced by US President Donald Trump, in Gaza City, last month. Credit:AP

Hamas, for its part, on Friday accused Israel of hacking one of its groups on the messaging app Telegram and posting doctored photos of Hamas intelligence officers in embarrassing poses.

The Israelis said Hamas tricked soldiers using women's photos that had been altered to defeat easy reverse-image searches with fake names like "Yael Azoulay" and "Noa Danon." The women had fleshed-out social media profiles, salted their texts with Hebrew slang and maintained accounts on several platforms at once.