How does Hamas get its weapons? (and the fundamental role that a powerful partner plays in the Middle East)

How do you get your weapons Hamas? This is a question that many ask themselves, taking into account the level of border control in Link exercised by Israel and Egypt. How could the rockets fired at Israel, the drones used in Saturday’s attack, the rifles with which the Israelis were massacred and the ammunition for these weapons enter the enclave? There are several factors that answer these questions.

Let’s first review the recent history of Link to understand what is happening now with Hamas.

LOOK: “Hell”: what an Israeli ground offensive would look like in Gaza, an overcrowded territory full of Hamas tunnels

Israel was attached Gaza strip In 1967, at the end of the Six Day War between Arabs and Israelis. But on September 12, 2005, he unilaterally withdrew.

Members of the Ezz-Al Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, parade in trucks carrying rockets on a street in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, on May 27, 2021. (Photo by THOMAS COEX/AFP). (THOMAS COEX/)

Link later passed to the control of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)directed Mahmoud Abbaswho replaced the leader Yasser Arafat after his death.

In 2007, Hamas took control of Gaza. after fierce fighting with rivals from Abbas’s Fatah faction, which remains in power in West Bank.

Link It is a 360 square kilometer strip of Mediterranean coastline that is bordered on two sides by Israel and for one with Egypt. 2.3 million Palestinians live in this small territory.

When Hamas took power, Israel and Egypt imposed strict border control.

What is more, Israel Since then, it has maintained an air and naval blockade on Linkas well as an extensive surveillance device.

Children watch the Palestinian movement Hamas display rockets and a military drone during an exhibition in the Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza, on December 9, 2022. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED/AFP). (MOHAMMED ABED/)

Despite these controls, on Saturday, October 7 Hamas infiltrated Israel and perpetrated a massacre that has so far left more than 1,300 people dead. In his operation he used a variety of weapons including 5,000 rockets. How did you get them?

Militants from the Ezz al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of the Hamas movement, launch a rocket from the coastal strip of Gaza towards Israel. (EFE/EPA/MOHAMMED SABLE).

Experts consulted by the news network CNN explain that the arsenal of Hamas It’s a combination of cunning, improvisation, tenacity and a key foreign benefactor: Will.

“Hamas acquires its weapons through smuggling or local construction and receives some military support from Will” notes the CIA World Factbook.

According to the El Español portal, the Fajr-3 It is one of the most popular unguided projectiles that Will directly provided the Hamas. They belong to the category of multiple launch artillery rockets (MLRS) which are typically integrated into the back of a truck.

He adds that the system weighs 15 tons, uses 240-millimeter rockets and has a firing range of 40 kilometers. The rockets carry 45 kilograms of explosive material.

Iran also supplied Hamas with Fajr-5, indicates El Español. It has a caliber of 333 millimeters and an effective range of up to 75 kilometers. Its launch method is very similar to the Fajr-3 and each truck can hold up to 4 rockets at the same time. Although it is an unguided munition, Tehran announced in 2017 that it had incorporated a GPS system into the latest version of the weapon.

Another weapon of Iranian origin that he used Hamas Saturday is the drone Ababil-2. El Español details that It has a range of over 100 kilometers and takes off from a launcher or with assistance from rockets. Adapts according to the operator’s needs. Thus, its use ranges from espionage or could end up becoming a kamikaze drone if a 30-kilo warhead is incorporated.

Hamas reported that it used 35 kamikaze drones to begin its attack on Israel. pic.twitter.com/pe95MdlL6j

— Direto do Front (@DiretoFront) October 8, 2023

Hamas He also used small drones of unknown origin. The Islamic group is capable of manufacturing its own unmanned ships.

Members of the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic movement Hamas, stand next to a model Al-Zouari drone during a demonstration in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis on July 26, 2022. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) . (Said Khatib/)

A member of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas, takes part in a parade in Gaza City on November 14, 2021. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP). (MAHMUD HAMS/)

To the weapons are presented to Grace across clandestine cross-border tunnels or on boats that bypass the Israeli blockade.

“The infrastructure of the tunnel Hamas “It remains huge, even though Israel and Egypt periodically downgrade it,” Bilal Saab, senior researcher and director of the Defense and Security Program at the Middle East Institute (MEI) in Washington, told CNN.

“Hamas received weapons from Will smuggled in Link across tunnels. This often included long-range systems,” said Daniel Byman, principal investigator of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“Iran has also sent Hamas its most advanced ballistic missiles by seain components for construction in Link“Charles Lister, principal investigator at MEI, told CNN.

A report from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) 2017 confirms that firearms smuggling Will for Link through tunnels is nothing new. “One of the main methods used Hamas to obtain weapons is through an extensive network of tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. Since 2007, when Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip, the terrorist group has focused its efforts on smuggling weapons sent by allied organizations. With financial assistance from Iran, Hamas has accumulated a large arsenal of weapons,” says the IDF.

In 2011, the Israeli Navy boarded the German ship Victoria and discovered in its cargo more than 50 tons of weapons who were camouflaged in cotton sheets and bags of lentils. When sending weapons there was 120 mm and 60 mm mortars, C-704 anti-ship missiles, ammunition for Kalashnikov assault rifles, missile launchers, radars and hydraulic winches for the missilesthe IDF details.

Most of these weapons were of Iranian manufacture and had instruction manuals in Persian (Farsi) and symbols of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Hamas also manufactures its own weapons, always with the advice of Will.

“Iran also helped Hamas with its indigenous manufacturing, allowing Hamas create their own arsenals”, said Daniel Byman of CSIS.

In an interview with the Russian channel RT, a senior commander of the Hamas Based in Lebanon identified as Ali Baraka He told on Sunday how the organization makes its weapons.

“We have local factories for everything, for rockets with a range of 250 km, for 160 km, 80 km and 10 km. We have mortar factories and their projectiles… We have mortar factories Kalashnikovs and their bullets. We are manufacturing the bullets with permission from the Russians. “We are building them in Gaza”, said Ali Baraka, head of Hamas Foreign Affairs.

Researcher Charles Lister told CNN that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which reports directly to the supreme leader Ali Khameneito load nearly two decades of providing weapons training to Hamas engineers.

“Years of access to more advanced systems have given engineers Hamas the knowledge necessary to significantly improve its national production capacity”, Lister stated.

“Rocket and missile engineers Hamas They are part of the Iranian regional network, therefore frequent training and exchanges within Iran Will “It is part of Iran’s efforts to professionalize its representative forces across the region.”Lister said.

Members of the Ezz-Al Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, parade in a truck with rockets in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on May 27, 2021. (Photo by THOMAS COEX / AFP) . (THOMAS COEX/)

It is like Hamas obtains the raw materials to manufacture its rockets if it cannot import them due to the blockade Link?

Hamas recycles material from bombing debris and recovers unexploded munitions from Israeli attacks to rearm itself, according to Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, who in 2021 wrote an article on the topic for the Washington Institute’s Fikra Forum Policy on the Near East in 2021 .

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib said that Hamas It recycles electrical cables, metal tubes, metal sheets, steel bars, crushed concrete, among other materials, to manufacture its weapons and expand its network of tunnels.

Recycled material becomes raw material for the manufacture of rocket propellers and explosive warheads.

“IDF operations indirectly provide Hamas materials that would otherwise be strictly controlled or outright prohibited in Gaza.”he wrote.

Barakathe person in charge Hamas in Lebanon, declared that the Islamic group was preparing Saturday’s attack on Israel. Due to the number of rockets used, analysts believe it was accumulating its arsenal through both smuggling and manufacturing.

“The amazing thing is how thousands of rockets can be stored, moved, prepared and fired while avoiding Israeli, Egyptian, Saudi intelligence services, etc. “It is difficult to see how the Palestinian fighters could have done this without Iranian guidance,” Aaron Pilkington, a US Air Force analyst on Middle East affairs, told CNN.

Source: Elcomercio