New reports reveal Hamas terrorist fighters have been using weaponry from various foreign sources in their attacks against the Jewish state of Israel.
According to various media outlets, based on approximately 150 videos and photographs from the war zone in Gaza following the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre show that the group has used Iranian sniper rifles, AK-47 assault rifles from China and Russia, North Korean and Bulgarian-built rocket-propelled grenades, and makeshift anti-tank rockets.
Those weapons proved to be deadly and effective against Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) during weeks of intense urban warfare in Gaza, where Hamas terrorist fighters are typically armed only with what they can hold and employ hit-and-run tactics against Israeli troops. Hamas propaganda media outlets have posted videos of fighters shooting Israeli soldiers recorded through the scopes of sniper rifles.
"We are searching everywhere for weapons, for political support, for money," Hamas spokesperson Ghazi Hamad recently said in an interview with the Associated Press (AP).
Hamad did not say who specifically provided Hamas its weapons or how they were snuck into Gaza.
Many of the images taken since Oct. 2023 show Hamas terrorists brandishing weapons that appear to be relatively new, demonstrating that the group has found avenues of getting arms past the air-and-sea blockade of the Gaza Strip via boat, tunnels, or concealed in shipments of food and other humanitarian goods.
Hamas terrorist fighters have been seen showing off an array of Soviet-era weapons copied and manufactured in Iran and China, including variants of the Russian-designed 9M32 Strela, a portable heat-seeking anti-aircraft missile system.
Weapons recovered from Hamas terrorist fighters by the IDF in the Gaza Strip also include Italian-designed TC/6 anti-tank mines. Israeli and American officials say that most of the material and weaponry Hamas uses comes from none other than the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has had a history of supplying and training the terrorist group in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.
An Israeli military official with knowledge of Hamas weaponry told the AP that the group uses a combination of smuggled "off-the-shelf" weaponry such as AK-47s, RPGs, anti-aircraft missiles, and a collection of home-grown weapons often made with easily accessible civilian materials. The same official said the group uses lathes to configure metal into rocket projectiles and mortars, fitting them with explosives manufactured from fertilizers.
Other makeshift weapons include a launcher capable of firing 14 rockets simultaneously and the "Zuwari" drone, which is an explosives-laden aircraft used to strike Israeli observation towers and knock out cameras during the Oct. 7 attack.
Another weapon used by Hamas terrorist fighters is a version of a Chinese machine gun known as the Type 80, which is of Soviet design, and has also been copied by the Islamic Republic and renamed the PKM-780.
Hamas has also copied the Russian anti-tank rocket known as the PG-7VR, which is designed to defeat reactive-armor systems on Israeli Merkava Mark VI main battle tanks.
Such tanks are shielded with explosive-filled plates that explode outwards to disrupt incoming rocket projectiles. In an October propaganda video, Hamas terrorist fighters assembled a version of the Russian rocket that the group renamed the Al-Yasin 105 in honor of the group's founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, who was neutralized in an Israeli air strike in 2004.
Following the Oct. 7 massacre, the Islamic Republic of Iran has continued to supply Hamas and its proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen with weaponry to attack American and Israeli forces in the Middle East and the Red Sea.
Despite condemnations from the United States and the international community, Tehran continues to sponsor Hamas and its proxies without any reprisals whatsoever.
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