Illustrative – Hamas weapons cache confiscated by Israeli security forces in Gaza after Oct. 7, 2023. (Photo: IDF)
Senior officials of the Palestinian Authority security forces told Israel’s KAN national broadcaster on Wednesday that within the next year, Palestinian terror groups will have the ability to launch rockets into Israel.
The sources also told KAN that Iranian-affiliated players are behind the ongoing smuggling of sophisticated rockets from Jordan and into Judea and Samaria, internationally known as the West Bank.
Furthermore, the rockets being smuggled are similar in quality to the tens of thousands of rockets launched from Gaza since Oct. 7 and in recent years, according to the sources. They also said the rockets would be more advanced than the “primitive projectiles” that Palestinians in Jenin have been shooting toward Afula and Bat Hefer areas several times this past year.
The smuggling of rockets is reportedly being handled by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists in cooperation with Iranian operatives and guidance in Lebanon via Jordan, KAN reported.
According to the report, Israeli military operations in Tulkarm and Qalqilya in the West Bank are connected to efforts to smuggle more sophisticated rockets through Jordan.
One terrorist group in the northern West Bank – the al-Ayyash Battalion, named after a Hamas bomb-maker who was eliminated by Israel – repeatedly attempted to launch rockets at towns in Israel and Judea and Samaria in 2023. According to the IDF at the time, the rockets were homemade and did not contain explosive payloads, although one did manage to fly a distance of around 100 meters (330 feet).
Last year, Fabian Hinz, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, who specializes in missiles and drones, told The Times of Israel that the rockets from the West Bank were not even at the level of those launched from Gaza into Israel starting in 2001.
“I would imagine it would be possible to build something less crude than that, especially if you have some sort of experience, technology… knowledge and assistance from the Gaza Strip,” he said. “It looks like something a guy made in his backyard.”
Also on Wednesday, the KAN broadcaster quoted a senior Jordanian source who claimed that Amman believes Iran and its proxies are responsible for two explosives storage sites recently discovered by Jordanian authorities near the capital. These sites were found near an airport in southeastern Amman used by the U.S. military.
Jordan has reportedly thwarted numerous weapons smuggling attempts over the past year. These attempts were carried out by infiltrators linked to pro-Iranian groups in Syria who crossed into Jordan with rocket launchers and explosives. Some of the weapons had reportedly been successfully smuggled into Jordan undetected.
According to Jordanian officials, most of the smuggled weapons were intended for the West Bank. Several Hamas-affiliated Jordanians have been arrested by Jordanian authorities on suspicion of involvement in the smuggling operations.
The Iranian regime has denied any involvement in weapons smuggling.
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