Israeli officials knew before the October attacks that Hamas could salvage some Israeli-made weapons, but the scope has startled weapons experts and diplomats alike.
Israeli authorities also knew that their armories were vulnerable to theft. A military report from early last year noted that thousands of bullets and hundreds of guns and grenades had been stolen from poorly guarded bases.
From there, the report said, some made their way to the West Bank, and others to Gaza by way of Sinai. But the report focused on military security. The consequences were treated almost as an afterthought: “We are fueling our enemies with our own weapons,” read one line of the report, which was viewed by The New York Times.
The consequences became apparent on October 7. Hours after Hamas breached the border, four Israeli soldiers discovered the body of a Hamas gunman who was killed outside the Re’im military base. Hebrew writing was visible on a grenade on his belt, said one of the soldiers, who recognised it as a bulletproof Israeli grenade, a recent model. Other Hamas fighters overran the base, and Israeli military officials say some weapons were looted and returned to Gaza.
A few miles away, members of an Israeli forensic team collected one of the 5000 rockets fired by Hamas that day. Examining the rocket, they discovered that its military-grade explosives had most likely come from an unexploded Israeli missile fired into Gaza during a previous war, according to an Israeli intelligence officer.
The October 7 attacks showcased the patchwork arsenal that Hamas had stitched together. It included Iranian-made attack drones and North Korean-made rocket launchers, the types of weapons that Hamas is known to smuggle into Gaza through tunnels. Iran remains a major source of Hamas’ money and weapons.
A Palestinian man has his photo taken next to unexploded Israeli ordnance in a 2009 file photo.Credit: AP
But other weapons, like anti-tank explosives, rocket-propelled grenade warheads, thermobaric grenades and improvised devices were repurposed Israeli arms, according to Hamas videos and remnants uncovered by Israel.
Rockets and missiles require huge quantities of explosive material, which officials say is the most difficult item to smuggle into Gaza.
Yet Hamas fired so many rockets and missiles October 7 that Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system could not keep up. Rockets struck towns, cities and military bases, giving cover to the militants who stormed into Israel. One rocket hit a military base believed to house part of Israel’s nuclear missile program.
Hamas once relied on material like fertiliser and powdered sugar – which, pound for pound, are not as powerful as military-grade explosives – to build rockets. But since 2007, Israel has enforced a strict blockade, restricting the import of goods, including electronics and computer equipment, that could be used to make weapons.
That blockade and a crackdown on smuggling tunnels leading into and out of Gaza forced Hamas to get creative.
Its manufacturing abilities are now sophisticated enough to saw into the warheads of bombs weighing up to 900 kilograms, to harvest the explosives and to repurpose them.
“They have a military industry in Gaza. Some of it is above ground, some of it is below ground, and they are able to manufacture a lot of what they need,” said Eyal Hulata, who served as Israel’s national security adviser and head of its National Security Council before stepping down early last year.
One Western military official said that most of the explosives that Hamas is using in its war with Israel appear to have been manufactured using unexploded Israeli-launched munitions. One example, the official said, was an explosive booby trap that killed 10 Israeli soldiers in December.
Hamas cannot manufacture everything. Some things are easier to buy from the black market and smuggle into Gaza. Sinai, the largely uninhabited desert region between Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip, remains a hub for arms smuggling. Weapons from conflicts in Libya, Eritrea and Afghanistan have been discovered in Sinai, according to Israeli intelligence assessments.
According to two Israeli intelligence officials, at least a dozen small tunnels were still running between Gaza and Egypt before October 7. A spokesperson for the Egyptian government said its military had done its part to shut down tunnels on its side of the border. “Many of the weapons currently inside the Gaza Strip are the result of smuggling from within Israel,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Loading
But the besieged streets of Gaza are increasingly a source of weapons.
Israel estimates that it has conducted at least 22,000 strikes on Gaza since October 7. Each often involves multiple rounds, meaning tens of thousands of munitions have likely been dropped or fired – and thousands failed to detonate.
“Artillery, hand grenades, other munitions – tens of thousands of unexploded ordnance will be left after this war,” said Charles Birch, the head of the UN Mine Action Service in Gaza. These “are like a free gift to Hamas”.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.
#Israeli #military #realises #arming #Hamas #time
