Hamas gets a “significant number” of its weapons from IDF duds, reports The New York Times, citing Israeli and Western intelligence officials, and a former senior Israeli police officer.
Intelligence gleaned during the ongoing war in Gaza has helped Israel understand that it badly underestimated the number of rockets and other explosives Hamas was able to create from munitions that failed to detonate. One Western military official says that most of Hamas’s explosives used in the war have come from unexploded IDF shells and missiles.
An Israeli intelligence officer tells NYT that the failure rate for IDF munitions fired into Gaza could be as high as 15 percent.
Another significant source of weapons is theft from IDF bases, which reach the West Bank or Gaza via the Sinai desert.
Hamas is able to saw into warheads of up to 2,000 pounds and repurpose the explosives, according to the report.
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From the Liveblog of
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