A rare rocket attack from Lebanon last week gave Israel a glimpse into the military capabilities of the Lebanese branch of Hamas.
The rockets fired at northern Israel — apparently by a wing of the Palestinian Hamas terror group — appear to be Iranian in origin and may have been supplied by Iran or its proxy Hezbollah, according to experts.
On April 6, the Israel Defense Forces said at least 36 rockets were launched into Israel from Lebanon, with many of them downed by the Iron Dome air defense system. Two people were lightly injured by shrapnel.
It was the heaviest rocket barrage since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and was blamed by Israel on the Gaza Strip-based Hamas.
A well-known Western weapons expert who writes anonymously on Twitter under the pseudonym of Calibre Obscura, and whose reporting has been cited by The Guardian, AFP, Vice and others, said that the rockets were likely Iranian variants of Russian and Chinese projectiles.
Hamas has quietly established a Lebanese branch in recent years in order to open up an additional front against Israel in future conflicts.
The branch is based in Tyre, according to a report last year in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, but it is believed to have other outposts throughout the country.
The powerful Hezbollah terror group, which holds tight control over southern Lebanon, has similar equipment in its arsenal, sparking fears it may have also handed over some of its accurate missiles to Hamas, which were not used in last week’s barrage.
A US official told Sky News on Tuesday that Hezbollah had supplied Hamas members in Lebanon with long-range rockets to use against Israel.
There is no question among military officials and analysts that Hezbollah was involved to some extent in the rocket fire last week, as Hamas could not have carried out such an attack without the Lebanese group’s consent. The IDF was probing whether Iran was involved as well.
Jonathan Schanzer, a vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank, said Hamas’s military infrastructure in Lebanon was first made public in 2018 in a letter by Israel’s then-ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon.
“The letter details quite plainly what Israel believed Hamas to be doing. And predictably, the UN did nothing. And five years later, we’re on the precipice of a Middle East war,” he told The Times of Israel.
Danon’s letter, dated May 11, 2018, stated: “I wish to draw your attention to the strengthening of ties between two internationally recognized terrorist organizations, Hamas and Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy. As I informed you in my letter sent 27 June 2017, Hamas has been colluding with Hezbollah and its sponsor in Tehran to expand its malicious activities beyond Gaza, Judea and Samaria to areas within Lebanon.”
“The increasing cooperation between Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran constitutes a major threat not only to Israel but to the stability and security of the entire region… it is led by Saleh al-Arouri, the Lebanon-based deputy head of Hamas’s Politburo,” Danon wrote in 2018.
“Hamas has been building its own military force covertly in Lebanon. Hamas has recruited and trained hundreds of fighters, mostly men of Palestinian origin, and plans to recruit thousands more who will comprise a force that will operate on Hamas’s behalf in Lebanon,” he added.
On Sunday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah met with a Hamas delegation in Beirut to discuss cooperation. The delegation was led by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and included al-Arouri.
“The resistance forces have the power and means to stop the aggression against the mosque and will work for its liberation,” he said at an event in Beirut.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has long represented the most significant military threat on Israel’s borders, with an estimated arsenal of nearly 150,000 rockets that can reach anywhere in the country, hundreds of which are precision-guided missiles.
Schanzer said the Israeli defense establishment should be asking itself if Hamas in Lebanon possesses precision-guided missiles, which Hezbollah has been amassing and producing using parts imported from Iran.
“Has Hezbollah shared the precision-guided munitions with Hamas?” he asked. “If they are operating in the same theater, if they are already cooperating hand in glove, if they have the same sponsor, the same weapons purveyor, what is to say that Hamas has not acquired these weapons?”
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