HAMAS USING U.S. AND IRANIAN WEAPONS AGAINST ISRAEL

Hamas Using U.S. Weapons Against IDF - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
According to Palestinian sources in Gaza, most of the gunmen fighting the IDF over the past few days are members of Hamas' armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, with 15,000 members divided into four brigades.

The Hamas gunmen were using many American-made arms seized from the Fatah-controlled PA security forces in June.

Other groups involved in the fighting include Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees, and some splinter factions of Fatah's Aksa Martyrs Brigades, operating in coordination with Hamas. Altogether, these groups have fewer than 1,500 gunmen in Gaza.

Hamas is hoping that once the fighting is over, it will be able to declare "victory, as Hizbullah did after the war in 2006," said a Palestinian source.

Long-range rockets fired from Gaza are Iranian: Israel army (AFP)
The Israeli army on Monday said that all the long-range rockets fired by Gaza militants against southern Israel during the latest round of violence were manufactured in arch-foe Iran.
Speaking to the parliament's powerful foreign affairs and defence committee, a senior military intelligence official said that over 20 Katyusha-type rockets, also known as Grad, were fired against Israel since last Thursday.

"We are talking about regular Iranian-made rockets," an official quoted the intelligence official as saying.

The 122-millimetre rockets have a range of about 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) and carry a large payload which caused heavy damage to buildings in the southern coastal town of Ashkelon, which bore the brunt of the Grad rocket fire.

SEE ALSO: GAZA: RPGS FOUND IN MOSQUES (Atlas Shrugs)