The BBC says a senior Israeli army officer is calling a war with Gaza ‘a question of when, not if’. The rearmament of Hamas is held up as evidence of new and greater concerns.
The Israeli-developed active protection system (APS) known as Trophy is designed to destroy missiles like the Russian-made AT-14 Kornet, one of which hit a Merkava Mk3 tank on 6 December.
The laser-guided missile – which carries 10kg (22lb) of high explosive – penetrated the tank’s armour, but did not injure its crew.
“Fortunately, it did not explode within the tank. It is a heavy missile that is among the most dangerous that we have seen on this front and was not used even during the Lebanon war,” [emphasis added] Israeli Chief-of-Staff Lt-Gen Gabi Ashkenazi told a closed-door parliamentary session on Tuesday.
My first thought is we now might have another clue related to the large shipments of small arms and explosives uncovered by police in Nigerian ports.
Nigeria’s secret service said on Tuesday it had intercepted 13 containers of weapons from Iran in what Israeli defense sources believe may be part of a new smuggling route from Iran to Hamas in Gaza.
Rocket launchers, grenades and other explosives camouflaged as building material were seized in the Nigerian port of Lagos after being unloaded from an Iranian ship.
That news story suggests Sudan or the Sinai might be involved in a land route but I would say it’s going through Eritrea, especially since Eritrea has been ordering Kornets for themselves since 2005. Ah, but before I fire up my usual anti-proliferation on the Horn of Africa line I have to check the Israeli reports on weapons used in the Lebanon war.
Apparently the Kornet was not only found there, but it saw active and successful use with guidance systems against Israeli tanks. It was blamed for Israel’s initial losses and the slow pace of advance into Lebanese territory.
You can read all about it and even look at pictures of the captured evidence in part two of the Human Shields document from the Terrorism Info site in Israel (Subtitle: PROOF OF THE LOCATION OF THE HEZBOLLAH’S MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE AND OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT FROM WITHIN THE CIVILIAN POPULATION.)
pg 33
“…the massive deployment of anti-tank squads armed with advanced Kornet missiles…”
[…]
pg 34
“Various arms and ammunition were seized in the village of Ghandouriyeh:
a. Eight complete kits of advanced Kornet anti-tank missiles (including heat-seeking devices, the missiles themselves, and shipping certificates)”
The report points out that the Kornet missiles were buried in homes, usually unknown to the residents, and were moved around the villages by men dressed in civilian clothing with motorbikes sometimes even waving white flags.
The BBC or the Israeli army must be trying to say something has changed about the Kornet missiles fired from Gaza (supplied by Iran via the Horn?), but it’s not clear from their story.