Officials said Iran has been training up to 500 Hamas operatives as
combat commanders and soldiers. They said the Hamas fighters would serve as
the core of any Hamas-led Palestinian Army over the next year.
"When you have 500 people trained in modern warfare, with advanced
equipment, they can serve as trainers for a full-sized army," an official
said.
On Tuesday, Israel Security Agency director Yuval Diskin said Hamas has
sent hundreds of fighters to Iran for a military training course, Middle East Newsline reported. Diskin
told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the Hamas
fighters were receiving "high-quality training" that would last
about six months.
"Hundreds of Hamas members have been sent to Iran for training, and not
training periods of a week, two weeks or a month, but for long-term,
high-quality training," Knesset member Zvi Hendel, a member of the
committee, quoted Diskin as saying.
Diskin said the Iranian plan envisioned the formation of a Palestinian
army by 2009, with missiles that could reach targets throughout southern
Israel. He said Hamas has been training forces the size of companies and
battalions in the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, Diskin said, Hamas has sought to build a military
infrastructure in the West Bank. The ISA chief said Hamas, with Iran's help,
wants to assemble Katyusha-class rockets in the West Bank that could strike
Tel Aviv and other major cities in central Israel.
"If these weapons leak from the Gaza Strip to Judea and Samaria [West
Bank], it means that every Israeli city -- Tel Aviv and Jerusalem -- could
come under possible threat of projectile weapons," Knesset Foreign Affairs
and Defense Committee chairman Tsahi Hanegbi said. "This is not the case
because the Israeli military is in Judea and Samaria."
Officials said Iran has already trained scores of Hamas fighters for a
Palestinian army directed by Teheran. They said the army would be comparable
in skills to the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah and contain special forces,
logistics, engineering and anti-tank squads.
"Iran and Hamas got married in 2001," Internal Security Minister Avi
Dichter, Diskin's predecessor, said. "Iran tried to build and base this
coordination through Hizbullah. But Hamas refused and insisted on direct
Hamas links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian
Intelligence Ministry."
The key capabilities of the Hamas force has been weapons tunnels and
improvised explosive devices. Officials said Hamas has built a network of
tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip.
"The picture drawn for us is grave," Knesset member Yuval
Steinitz, deputy chairman of the committee, said.
Steinitz has Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has been
cooperating with the Hamas military effort. The Israeli parliamentarian
said Abbas plays the "good cop with whom we talk peace while over his
shoulder stands Hamas, the bad cop."
"I call on the government to launch Operation Defensive Shield-2 in the
Gaza Strip," Steinitz, in reference to the month-long Israeli operation in
the West Bank in 2002, said.