With the proliferation of fakes news on the internet, it's no surprise most people are falling for it hook, line and sinker.

The latest victim to fall in its trap is a Pakistani minister who wrongly assumed that an Israeli defence minister has threatened Pakistan with nuclear retaliation.

Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif tweeted on Friday apparently reacting to a fake news article published on awdnews.com.

Israeli def min threatens nuclear retaliation presuming pak role in Syria against Daesh.Israel forgets Pakistan is a Nuclear state too AH — Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) December 23, 2016

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The story appeared on the site on December 20 with a blaring headline "Israeli Defense Minister: If Pakistan send ground troops to Syria on any pretext, we will destroy this country with a nuclear attack," along other equally frivolous headlines.

The story also identified Israel's defence minister wrongly by attributing quotations to a former minister, Moshe Yaalon when Israel's current minister of defence is Avigdor Lieberman.

The Israeli Defense Ministry responded on Twitter to say the report was fictitious.

"The statement attributed to fmr Def Min Yaalon re Pakistan was never said," the ministry wrote in Twitter post directed at Asif. The Israeli ministry added in a second post: "Reports referred to by the Pakistani Def Min are entirely false."

@KhawajaMAsif reports referred to by the Pakistani Def Min are entirely false — Ministry of Defense (@Israel_MOD) December 24, 2016

Asif did not respond to the Israelis on Twitter, and as of Saturday his message had been reposted nearly 400 times.