Israel says it has found evidence that Iran trained Hamas to build and use precision-guided missiles, suggesting the terrorist organization has significantly improved its weapons capabilities.
“Under Iranian guidance, Hamas operatives learned how to operate and manufacture precision missile manufacturing components and strategic weapons,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Sunday.
“This is evidenced by the findings of IDF forces at a weapons manufacturing site located inside a 100-meter-long Hamas tunnel discovered in Daraj Tufa in northern Gaza.”
Photos from the weapons production site showed what the Israel Defense Forces said were Hamas-built rocket engines and cruise missile warheads.
An accompanying video posted to Even the business bureau's identification card was packed inside.
Exactly why the IDF concluded that the technology came from Iran remains unclear, but Israel has previously suspected that the country was trying to supply guided missiles to proxies including Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Until new evidence came to light, Hamas was believed to have been equipped to use only unguided missiles, he said. era of israel.
The discovery is far from the first evidence that Iran is supporting Hamas in its fight against Israel, prior to the deadly Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 people on the Jewish ethnic group. go back.
Documents were reportedly discovered by the Israeli military in November showing that Hamas military leadership had requested financial assistance from Iran to send individuals to study engineering, physics and technology development at Iranian universities. CNN.
“This example is another piece in the elaborate puzzle of the Iranian regime's deep infrastructure of building, supporting, financing, and training terrorist proxies around the world, especially in the Gaza Strip,” an Israeli official told CNN at the time. Told.
Iran's support for extremist groups across the Middle East is well-documented, with proxies such as Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah, and Yemen's Houthis known as the “Axis of Resistance.”
These groups are dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the eradication of Western influence in the region.
