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Hamas fighting with Israeli-made weapons: Report

The Cradle | January 29, 2024

Much of the arsenal used by Hamas during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October was originally Israeli weapons, the New York Times (NYT) reported on 28 January. 

“Israeli military and intelligence officials have concluded that a significant number of weapons used by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks and in the war in Gaza came from an unlikely source: the Israeli military itself,” the NYT wrote on Sunday. 

According to recent intelligence, a large number of Hamas’ explosive weapons were recycled from undetonated Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza and repurposed for the resistance group’s use. 

“Unexploded ordnance is a main source of explosives for Hamas,” Michael Cardash, former deputy head of the Israeli National Police Bomb Disposal Division, said. 

“Hamas has been able to build many of its rockets and anti-tank weaponry out of the thousands of munitions that failed to detonate when Israel lobbed them into Gaza,” the NYT cites weapons experts, as well as US and Israeli intelligence officials, as saying. 

The report also highlights that Hamas fighters are armed with weapons that have been stolen from Israeli military bases. 

“Intelligence gathered during months of fighting revealed that, just as the Israeli authorities misjudged Hamas’s intentions before Oct. 7, they also underestimated its ability to obtain arms.”

On 9 October, Iranian news outlet Tasnim cited an unnamed Palestinian source as saying that elements of the Israeli army who had been collaborating with Hamas provided the resistance group with “crucial” intelligence that aided in the successful launching of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. 

According to the official, this cooperation was ongoing for some time and explicitly related to the increase over the years of weapons theft from Israeli bases.

“Robbers often easily breach security and steal military equipment, bullets, rifles, generators, and even military vehicles,” the Tasnim report said.

In 2012, Haaretz reported that $14 million worth of equipment had been stolen from Israeli military bases. In May 2019, Maariv newspaper reported the disappearance of nearly 50 M16 rifles, many of which were never recovered.

Many instances of theft from Israeli bases have been reported since.

An investigation by The Cradle revealed last year that resistance groups in the occupied West Bank have mainly been relying on weapons stolen from Israeli army bases, as well as some which are smuggled in via Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.

January 29, 2024 - Posted by | Aletho News | , ,

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