Hamas Snipers are the Biggest Threat to Israeli Army in Gaza

Hebrew media reported that Hamas snipers, who number in the hundreds, pose the greatest threat to army personnel inside the Gaza Strip, Quds Press reports.

The Hebrew newspaper, Israel Hayom, said that the clips published recently by the Hamas and Islamic diJihad movements reveal some details about their methods of operation, adding that “with the help of dismantled weapons and pre-prepared sites, guerrilla warfare teams have long become one of the main threats facing the army forces in the Gaza Strip.”

It pointed out that Hamas published a video clip on Wednesday, through which one can see how the movement’s snipers work basically.

It explained that in the first stage, a Hamas sniper supervises the monitoring of an Israeli army force in one of the buildings in the “Zeitoun neighborhood.”

In the second stage, the camera shifts to the direction the sniper is looking at, who is working from a prepared position, indicating that “the sniping operation requires great effort from Hamas.”

In another video released on August 11, Hamas and Islamic Jihad showed footage of a joint attack in the Khan Yunis area. A squad of three fighters in civilian clothes were stationed in the building with equipment. One of them was acting as a spotter, the second as a sniper, and the third was filming the moment.

The group is waiting for an opportunity to attack Israeli soldiers in a nearby building.

Another video shows a more complex attack. First, a building where Israeli army forces were located was chosen, in this case a building located behind the university college in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City. An observer from the Islamic Jihad was sent, in civilian clothes.

The next step is to call in the other squad members who arrive, also in civilian clothes, carrying weapons in a white bag, a backpack and a holster. Later, the assault squad, consisting of only three, arms itself in a nearby building and sets off. Two of them are armed with rifles, the third carries an RPG, and a fourth insurgent records from a distance.

The squad enters the first floor and begins shooting. The resistance fighters then exchange fire outside the building with IDF soldiers on the second floor.

The videos show that the sniper team is very limited in size, four at most, and can be used in different roles.

According to the newspaper, these operations benefit from the constant presence of Israeli army forces in the buildings.

The newspaper explains that the main advantage of sniper operations is that you do not need a large-scale military framework such as a battalion or brigade to carry out this type of attack.

The newspaper said that last December, Hamas published a video in which it revealed that it was producing sniper rifles locally. They are imitations of an Iranian sniper rifle called the AM-50 Sayyad, which was developed from Austrian Steyr HS Fifty rifles that Tehran had obtained in the past.

In 2014, Hamas announced that it had produced a sniper rifle known as the “Ghoul,” named after a senior member of the organization who was assassinated by Israel, Ismail al-Ghoul.

According to the videos, snipers use bags, pillows and concrete blocks to replace the rifle’s tripod.

According to the newspaper, Hamas snipers do not only use “local products.” According to publications in Arab media, Chinese-made sniper rifles called the Zhejiang M99 have been used , and they appear to have reached the Gaza Strip through smuggling tunnels.

The newspaper claimed that one of those who led the “professional operation” of the sniper unit in Hamas was Imad Odeh, nicknamed “Abu Jaafar”, who served as a sniper during Operation Protective Edge (the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in 2014). He was then appointed commander of the central training of snipers and supervisor of work programs in training the military branch of the “Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades”. He was martyred during the war after he was commander of the “Defense Company” in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to sources close to the movement, Imad Odeh has trained hundreds of Hamas snipers since 2014. This training is another job that every sniper does anyway, and is not a specific role. That is, you can be a sniper and a platoon commander.

The newspaper pointed to another Hamas sniper whose name made headlines, Mohammed Abu Khattab, who was a commander in Hamas’s Beach Battalion, and who managed on July 9 to snipe Sergeant Tal Lahat (21 years old) from the Maglan Unit before he was martyred in the same month during clashes with the Israeli army.

Since October 7 2023, the Israeli occupation army has continued its aggression on the Gaza Strip, with American and European support. Its aircraft are bombing the vicinity of hospitals, buildings, towers, and Palestinian civilian homes, destroying them over the heads of their residents, and preventing the entry of water, food, medicine, and fuel.

The ongoing aggression by the occupation on Gaza has led to the martyrdom of 40,534 people, the injury of 93,778 others, and the displacement of 90% of the population of the Strip, according to data from the United Nations. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)