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Doncaster paragliders brand woman 'silly' for thinking Hamas was invading

The woman posted on social media that it was insensitive for paragliders to fly over the Yorkshire town

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This picture taken on March 5, 2023 shows a paramotor pilot flying over the Kedu Warna beach at Lampung Selatan in Indonesia's Lampung province. (Photo by PERDIANSYAH / AFP) (Photo by PERDIANSYAH/AFP via Getty Images)

A Doncaster resident has been reassured by her community after paragliders above her village made her think of Hamas invading.

Last Saturday, in the opening stages of Hamas's unprecedented terror attack, motorised paragliders operated by terrorists were spotted in the skies of southern Israel before Hamas fighters landed and began their assault.

And now, a week later, a woman's sighting of paragliders made her think Doncaster could have been at risk.

According to the Doncaster Free Press, the woman wrote on a local Facebook group that seeing the gliders above the village of Armthorpe near Doncaster gave her "a fright".

She wrote: "Whoever thought it was funny to parasail over the village, it was in extremely poor taste.

"Take your twisted hatred somewhere else.

"There was two parachutes with engines like Hamas used at that festival, gave me a fright."

The woman, who has not been named, was reassured by other users in the group who told her that the local paragliding club regularly flies over the area, usually on weekends.

Local paragliding group AXB paramotoring confirmed to the JC that they were responsible fo the incursion over the village, describing the fuss over it as "silly."

Paul Haxby, who has been flying motorised gliders in the area since 1991, told the JC that his organisation has no sympathies with Hamas and that the reaction was unjustified.

He said: "If there had a been a car bombing, would this woman be scared of every car she saw?

"We will keep flying, this hasn't put us off."

Haxby also mentioned that he'd been to Israel several times on paramotoring trips and is in contact with Israelis operating similar crafts.

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