In the past, Israeli forces have had to deal with the throwing of Molotov cocktails, bottles and stones during decades-long clashes between Israeli and Palestinian armed groups. Today, in the war with Hamas, the IDF faces an enemy that is large in quantity and has a formidable arsenal demandingin which Hamas’s expansion of firepower comes under the scrutiny of analysts.
Hamas, who is Yahya Sinwar: the “Butcher of Gaza”, hidden in the bunker under the hospital. Netanyahu: “A little Hitler”
The arsenals were made in Iran and North Korea
We must remember that Israel is one of the countries capable of fielding a military force that is among the best armed and most technologically advanced in the world. A conflict that therefore remains asymmetrical is that between Israel and Hamas. Still, the wealth and power of Hamas’s arsenal is a fact that worries Israel. As Avi Melamed and Michael Milshtein, former head of the IDF’s Palestinian branch and senior analyst at Tel Aviv University’s Dayan Center, explained, Hamas’s military equipment is similar to that of “state armies.” “In reality, there is nothing new or surprising about the weapons themselves,” the analyst explained. “The biggest surprise is the quantity.”
Israel has closely monitored the types of weapons Hamas possesses. As well as an estimated strength of approx 30,000 menThe terrorist organization has modern sniper rifles, paragliders, “magnetic bombs”, disposable attack drones, Mini submarinesAnti-personnel mines, anti-tank missiles and long-range missiles, planning an attack as far north as Haifa, near the border with Lebanon.
But where does this sophisticated military equipment come from? Many of the weapons were smuggled in the Gaza Strip through tunnels, land crossings and by sea in the last decade due to the enormous instability and availability of military equipment due to the wars in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Sudan. Most of the weapons were manufactured by Iran (Hamas’s largest state backer) and even North Korea. Afterwards, many weapon variants were assembled directly in the strip with increasing precision and sophistication underground factories.
Much of the weaponry has been displayed by Hamas in recent hand-to-hand fighting in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has specifically focused its intelligence efforts on identifying Hamas’ air and ground forces. Israeli forces are now in Gaza City, fighting Hamas above and below ground in areas described as “honeycomb-shaped” and “filled with tunnels.”
Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official and founder of Inside the Middle East, a nonprofit focused on education, said Israel is facing this “very difficult” conditions with Hamas and its armed allies in Gaza. “It’s a heavily armed enemy,” he said, “not a bunch of kids running around with guns.”
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on Il Messaggero