Twittering between the IDF and Hamas. Photo: Screenshot.

For the first time ever, in a direct exchange of barbs over Twitter, the Israel Defense Force and Hamas’s military wing, Al Qassam Brigades, were, at least in cyberspace, on speaking terms.

In a flurry of tweets, re-tweets and ‘favorites’ on the social media site, IDF Lt. Col. Peter Lerner sparred with his opposite number, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner was on Twitter to answer questions about Tuesday’s IDF operation in which an Arab accused of the November 2012 Tel Aviv bus bombing was killed while attempting to evade capture.

He wrote, “The #IDF will continue to seek out those that attempt to undermine and defy our way of life. #TerrorDoesntPay”

Hamas’s military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, tweeted back to him directly: “Al #Qassam Brigades will continue its holy way of struggle & #resistance till the liberation of whole #Palestine. #Zionists.”

Lerner responded sharply: “@AlqassamBrigade #Israel is here to stay. The #IDF will continue to pursue the perpetrators of terror.”