How did Hamas transition from "primitive" confrontation methods to advanced weaponry?
With the beginning of the Israeli preparations to withdraw from the Gaza Strip to the settlements surrounding the Strip at the beginning of the 2000s, planning began to reach deep into Israeli territory, especially since the Israelis began building a huge fence equipped with warning devices, keeping the Israeli settlements away from Gaza by at least four kilometers.
Here, a new phase began. Hamas entered a phase of missile manufacturing.
The first attempt was in 2001 with a "primitively" prepared "Qassam-1" rocket.
At the time, Palestinian engineer Nidal Farhat led the development of these rockets, but the first attempt to launch the rocket failed, and its flight distance did not exceed the barbed wire fence by less than 2 kilometers.
Over the course of two decades, it worked its way up to rockets like the "Ayyash" rocket, which has a range of 220 kilometers.
During these twenty years, a significant development occurred in 2014 when advanced weapons, such as "Kornet," a Russian anti-tank guided missile, entered Gaza, specifically from Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Egypt through the Rafah Crossing.
In addition to rockets, Hamas also acquired drone technology. They began experimenting with drones in 2008 for photography purposes, eventually developing armed drones in 2014, the most prominent of which was the “Shehab” drone, which is a copy of the Iranian "Ababil" drones, until 2021, the day the "Zouari" drone was announced, which was also used in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation.
In addition to rockets and drones, Hamas used tunnels as a primary weapon against the Israeli army.
The construction of tunnels began in the early 2000s, initially for defensive purposes, to hide and protect weapons. Later, they transformed into "offensive" tunnels used by Hamas primarily for incursions into Israeli territory and transporting prisoners.
The "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation revealed new and advanced weapons. What capabilities will Hamas develop in the future?