Much of Hamas’s explosives comes from IDF fire that failed to detonate — report
New York Times says terrorists in Gaza cut open Israeli-fired duds to create rockets; theft from IDF is also major source of weapons
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Hamas steals a “significant number” of its weapons from Israel, and much of its material for explosives from IDF duds, reported The New York Times on Sunday, 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 fired from Israel that failed to detonate. One Western military official claimed that most of Hamas’s explosives used in the war have come from unexploded IDF shells and missiles.
An Israeli intelligence officer told The New York Times that the failure rate for IDF munitions fired into Gaza could be as high as 15 percent.
Another major source of weapons is theft from IDF bases, which often reach the West Bank or Gaza via the Sinai desert.
Hamas has also been able extract explosives from warheads of up to 2,000 pounds and repurpose them, according to the report. A single 750-pound bomb that doesn’t explode could provide material for hundreds of rockets, the newspaper reported.
Hamas was estimated to possess up to 20,000 rockets before October 7, around half of which it has since fired at Israel.
Hamas maintains a range of additional sources of weapons, including domestic manufacture and smuggling through the Egypt-Gaza border.
An Israeli military official familiar with Hamas’s arsenal told The Associated Press that the group also uses a combination of smuggled “off-the-shelf” weaponry, including AK-47s, RPGs and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as a large collection of home-grown weapons often made with easily accessible civilian materials.
“We are searching everywhere for weapons, for political support, for money,” Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad recently said in an interview with the AP, declining to discuss specifically who has been providing its weapons or how they were snuck into Gaza.
An AP investigation found that many of the weapons Hamas terrorists wield in videos appeared to be relatively new, evidence the group has found ways of getting arms past the air and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip — possibly by boat, through tunnels or concealed in shipments of food and other goods.
Israel launched its offensive on Hamas following the terror group’s murderous rampage through communities and a music festival in southern Israel on October 7, in which it killed close to 1,200 people and took another 253 hostages, 132 of whom are believed to still be held captive in Gaza.
At least 25,900 Gazans have been killed in the war, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said Thursday, an unverified figure which is believed to include close to 10,000 Hamas operatives Israel said it has killed during fighting in the Strip, as well as civilians killed by misfired Palestinian rockets.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
