GAZA CITY — Hamas has reported the development of the first guided
Palestinian missile.
Hamas sources said the movement has been developing the first
short-range missile with a guidance system. They said the new missile would
significantly improve the accuracy of Palestinian missile strikes against
Israeli targets from the Gaza Strip.
[On Wednesday, Israeli television reported that Defense Minister Amir
Peretz rejected a military plan for a massive operation that would destroy
Kassam production facilities in the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. The refusal came amid two
Israel Air Force strikes in the Gaza Strip in which civilians were killed.]
"The missiles are not yet ready for launch, but all of the technical
obstacles have been surmounted," a Hamas source said.
The sources said technology for Hamas's electronically-guided missile
was provided by Iran and Hizbullah. They said missile prototypes have
already been assembled in Hamas factories in the Gaza Strip.
"In the last months we accelerated the improvement of operations of our
missile production," Abu Abdullah, a senior Hamas operative told WorldNet
Daily. "We have already improved missiles and in the future we will have the
fourth model of our Kassam missiles, which will be electronically-guided
missiles and very accurate."
This would mark the fourth variant of the Hamas-origin Kassam missile.
The Kassam-1 has a range of about five kilometers; the Kassam-2 about eight
kilometers and the Kassam-3 10-12 kilometers. None of these Kassams contain
guidance systems.
Abdullah said Hamas's latest missile would be able to strike central
Israel from the Gaza Strip. He said Hamas would also smuggle the missile
to the West Bank.
Currently, an estimated 30 percent of Kassam missiles fail to leave the
Gaza Strip. Another 20 percent of Kassams fail to explode upon impact.
