Sudan has played a key role in
arming Hamas militants with sophisticated Iranian-made rockets, experts said.
The Israeli Defense Forces’
(IDF) principal objective in Gaza is to rid Palestinian terrorists of
sophisticated Iranian-produced rockets that are capable of striking deep into
Israel’s heartland, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
These rockets originated in
Sudan and were then smuggled into Gaza with Iran’s help, sources said.
The existence of these
advanced Fajr-5 rockets reveals the deepening ties between Iran and its
terrorist proxies in Gaza and Sudan, where the rockets were housed before
shipment.
“To put it simply, it was
Iranian-made Fajr-5s, imported via Sudan, that prompted this war,” said
Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies. “Iran’s fingerprints are all over this.”
Hamas terrorists in Gaza were
provided around 100 Fajr-5 rockets by Iran. The rockets are capable of
travelling nearly 50 miles, putting both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv within their
reach. These missiles differ drastically from the crude rockets typically fired
by Hamas terrorists.
The Fajr-5 missiles are
believed to have been smuggled from Sudan into Gaza via Egypt’s porous Sinai
region.
Sudan, a longtime ally of
Iran, acted as a “key transit point” for these weapons, Schanzer said.
“[Sudanese capital] Khartoum
has long been a transit point for Iranian-made rockets to Gaza,” he said. “The
smuggling route goes up through Egypt and across the Sinai [desert] into the
tunnels and into Gaza.”
Israel was the prime suspect after a weapons facility in south
Khartoum mysteriously exploded in late October. The Jewish state’s attack on
the Yarmouk military manufacturing facility was preventive in nature, experts
said.
“I am convinced that the
October bombing of an IRGC weapons factory in Khartoum was part one of this
operation,” Schanzer said. “The Israelis learned of a large cache of
Fajr-5s and destroyed it there.”
“But it appears that around
100 of them had already made it into Gaza,” he added. “This prompted the
Israelis hunt down the Fajrs during this latest round of fighting.”
Several of the Fajr-5 missiles
have landed near
Jerusalem in the last week. Others have crashed by Tel Aviv, forcing more than
a million Israelis to take refuge in bomb shelters.
Smuggling has become easier
and less restricted in Gaza following the fall of former Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak, who was known to bar the passage of sophisticated weaponry such
as the Fajr-5 missiles.
“One of the main ways that
Hamas acquires weapons is via an extensive network of tunnels under
the Gaza-Egypt border,” the Israeli Defense Forces stated in a report earlier
this month. “Since Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, the
terrorist group’s smuggling efforts have increased. With funding from Iran,
Hamas has improved its stockpile of weapons.”
Israel’s current military
incursion into Gaza is different from its 2008 Operation Cast Lead, Schanzer
said.
“Cast Lead was about Israel
sustaining too many rockets” from Gaza, he said. “This is about Israel trying
to get rid of a certain kind of rocket. They had a very specific goal here.”
Israeli Ambassador Michael
Oren condemned Iran’s arming of Hamas in a recent interview with Fox News.
“Our problem is not our border
with Gaza,” Fox News quoted Oren
saying on Monday. “Among the rockets being fired at us are the Fajr-5 rockets,
which come directly from Iran. We know that Hamas terrorists have trained with
the Iranians. There’s a strong connection.”
Terrorists in the Gaza Strip
have also made use of Iranian-made M-75 rockets, which have reached areas near
Jerusalem. The long-range rockets are believed to have been assembled with
Iran’s help.
It was believed that Iran
pulled funding for Hamas as economic sanctions and other factors lightened
Tehran’s purse.
“There’s a prevailing
assumption in Washington that Iran has been on the out with Hamas and that is
absolutely wrong,” Schanzer said. “Iran likely never left because it probably
took months to smuggle these [weapons] in—the surprise here is that Iran is
still very much a player in Gaza”
Fighting in Gaza dovetailed
with a series of military drills in
Iran that are being viewed as a warning to the West.
Iran has also helped hackers
in the Gaza Strip launch cyber attacks on Israel, according to reports.
“The Iranians may not have
ordered the day and hour for Hamas to launch its missiles, but they have been
the guiding hand behind Hamas’ rearmament,” said Michael Rubin, a former
Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq.
Others believe Israel’s
campaign in Gaza is a prelude to an attack on Iran. The IDF has launched more than 1,300
air assaults on targets in Gaza.
“The last 6 days of fighting
may in fact be a prelude to what looks like an increasingly inevitable military
strike against Iran’s nuclear program,” said Jennifer Griffin of Fox News on Monday.
Iran’s increased presence in
Gaza creates a new reality for Israel.
“Those who deny Iranian
involvement with Hamas are like the new Truthers, those who couldn’t be
convinced that Al Qaeda was responsible for 9/11 no matter how many times Bin
Laden claimed credit,” said Rubin. “Let’s just hope the White House and Langley
aren’t filled with these new Truthers.”
Adam Kredo,The Washington Free Beacon, November 21, 2012
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