Liberman claims Hamas has cruise missiles and cluster munitions
Former defense minister claims PM Netanyahu and DM Gantz are hiding the reality from Israeli citizens.
By ANNA AHRONHEIMPalestinian members of al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, display home-made rockets during an anti-Israel military parade, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip August 21, 2016(photo credit: REUTERS/IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA)
Yisrael Beytenu chairman and former defense minister Avigdor Liberman claimed that Hamas has developed advanced weapons including cruise missiles and cluster munitions.“Hamas is developing cruise missiles, cluster bombs, and unmanned aerial vehicles with jet engines,” Liberman said in the Knesset. “Do you know what it means for the residents of Israel if, God forbid, a conflict breaks out?”He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz of hiding the reality from Israeli citizens, and being irresponsible in their handling of Hamas.“Do you know what price we will pay? If I was you, I would have summoned all the regional council heads of Gaza border communities to a meeting with the defense minister, so he could explain to them what he intends to do to fight against cruise missiles and cluster bombs,” he said.Addressing Gantz, he asked how the former IDF chief of staff intended to handle the group’s continued manufacturing of rockets.“I repeat: Mr. Minister, today in the Gaza Strip at least two missiles are produced a day, some of which can reach Hadera.”In September Liberman warned that Hamas’ military capabilities would soon match those of Hezbollah if Israel continues to placate terrorists in the Gaza Strip, saying that “the rate at which its activities are expanding is alarming.”Several rounds of violent clashes between Israeli and terror groups in the Strip have taken place since 2018, with hundreds of rockets fired towards Israel. In 2018 there were 912 fired, 1,070 in 2019, and 206 so far this year.Despite the relative quiet in the south, the group continues to increase its aerial defense systems, ground-to-ground missile and rocket arsenal and its underground tunnel infrastructure.While weapons smuggling into the blockaded enclave from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has decreased over the years, groups in the Strip have invested in producing their own locally-made rockets.Hamas carries out tests on a regular basis, firing rockets towards the sea in an attempt to increase their range and destructive power.Hamas has been producing their Qassam rockets since 2001, which initially had a range of four kilometers, and now 19 years later they are able to strike as far away as Nahariya. Hamas, which has a fighting force of close to 40,000 men, is also estimated to have thousands more mortars.But following several rounds of fighting between Israel and Hamas over the past year and hundreds of airstrikes against Hamas weapons warehouses and other military targets, it’s estimated that the number of rockets have been reduced.
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