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Israeli officials have concluded that a significant number of weapons used by Hamas in the October 7 attacks and in the war in Gaza came from an unlikely source: the Israeli military itself.
Analysts have pointed to smuggling routes to explain how Hamas stayed so heavily armed despite an Israeli military blockade of the Gaza Strip.
But recent intelligence has shown the extent to which Hamas has been able to build many of its rockets and anti-tank weaponry out of the thousands of munitions that failed to detonate when Israel lobbed them into Gaza, according to experts and Israeli and Western officials. Hamas is also arming its fighters with weapons stolen from Israeli military bases.
Intelligence revealed that, just as the Israeli authorities misjudged Hamas’s intentions before October 7, they also underestimated its ability to obtain arms.
What is clear now is that the very weapons that Israeli forces have used to enforce a blockade of Gaza over the past 17 years are now being used against them. Israeli and American military explosives have enabled Hamas to shower Israel with rockets and, for the first time, penetrate Israeli towns from Gaza.
Weapons experts say that roughly 10 percent of munitions typically fail to detonate, but in Israel’s case, the figure could be higher.
By either count, years of sporadic bombing and the recent bombardment of Gaza have littered the area with thousands of tons of unexploded ordnance just waiting to be reused.
One 750-pound bomb that fails to detonate can become hundreds of missiles or rockets.
Hamas did not respond to messages seeking comment. The Israeli military said in a statement that it was committed to dismantling Hamas but did not answer specific questions about the group’s weapons.
