Shin Bet: Iran main supplier of weaponry to Hamas in 2010

Iran smuggled into the Gaza Strip about 1,000 mortar shells, hundreds of short-range rockets and a few dozen advanced anti-tank missiles over the past year, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed on Thursday.

In a report summing up 2010, the Shin Bet said that Iran continued to serve as Hamas’s main supplier of weaponry throughout the past year using smuggling routes in Sudan and the Sinai Peninsula. It was also instrumental in funding the training of Hamas operatives in Lebanon and Syria.

Last week, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi revealed that two weeks ago an advanced Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missile – one of the most sophisticated in the world - hit an Israeli Merkava tank and succeeded in penetrating its hull. As a result, the IDF has decided to deploy Battalion 9 of the 401st Armored Brigade along the Gaza border since its tanks are equipped with the Trophy active protection anti-tank missile defense system.

The Shin Bet warned that Hamas was making efforts to reestablish its military infrastructure in the West Bank with an emphasis on the Hebron area. Some of these efforts were thwarted, the security agency said, by the IDF and Palestinian Authority security forces.

The most dramatic statistic in the report was the significant drop in rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip down from 569 in 2009 to 150 in 2010. In 2008, in comparison, 2048 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel.

The Shin Bet warned in its report however that the Sinai Peninsula was turning into the “backyard” for Hamas operations as well as for storage of weaponry that can later be smuggled into Gaza and used against Israel. While the weaponry is in the Sinai it is not vulnerable to Israeli attacks. There were also two incidents over the past year of Hamas rocket attacks from the Sinai into the city of Eilat.

The Shin Bet warned of an increase in the number of attacks in the Jerusalem area with an emphasis on shooting and Molotov cocktail attacks. In total, the Shin Bet recorded a drop in the number of attacks in 2010 to 798 in comparison to 1,354 a year earlier.