Underground Military Production In Gaza – Part 1

From 1948 to the present time, many battles had taken place in the Middle East as part of the Arab-Israeli conflict, some countries have been relying on external sources to supply them with weapons needed for fighting, but historically it has not only been official governments which have clashed with Israel. There are also some political parties and militias which couldn’t simply import weapons officially from a foreign source so they have to resort to plan B – making their own tools of war themselves. In this article we will take a look at one of the main players in the Middle East conflict; the HAMAS movement and its military wing the Ezz el-Din al-Qassam brigades, who operate in Gaza-Palestine.

Introduction

HAMAS (حماس) is actually an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية or Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah. Translating to the Islamic Resistance Movement in English, the Movement has been in action since 1987, emerging during the First Palestinian Intifada, through the years it became the most important player in Gaza after they introduced their first local made rocket, the Qassam-1 in 2001, which took the conflict to a whole new level.

Now let’s take a look at what they make underground, in literally underground facilities to protect them from air raids & artillery strikes. “We are in conflict with an enemy who is superior to us, with its advanced weapons, and therefore we seek to develop our weapons to confront it.” These were the words of the leader of the Hamas movement, Dr. Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi (quoted on the Al Qassam website) which he echoed before his assassination by an Israeli airstrike had inspired the combatant members in Al-Qassam Brigades.

The Qassami members worked night and day to innovate and develop weapons and military equipment through very poor capabilities.

The Qassam military industries have developed everything from pistols to machine guns, to grenades, missiles and explosive devices of various kinds until these industries became almost like trademarked brands registered in the name of “Qassam”.

From Stones to Bullets

Since the beginning of the first intifada in 1987 and the participation of the members of the Islamic Movement in the activities of this uprising, which began with stones, empty bottles and Molotov cocktails, then they began to innovate and manufacture their own arsenal to use in operations. While using existing old weapons and ammunition in the 1990s they also had an urgent need to obtain weapons to arm their partisans, whose numbers began to increase daily.  Qassam found they had nothing to arm their men with except for a few old weapons – the most famous of which was the “M/45 Carl Gustaf” 9×19mm submachine gun (from which they later copied the operating mechanism from to produce their improvised Carlo SMG, this also indicates where the Carlo took its nickname from). From these humble beginnings, the Qassam brigades quickly began to think about manufacturing their weapons.

Manufacturing Pistols: Humble Beginnings

The manufacturing work was launched under the leadership of the late Qassami commander Mohsen Abdullah Shehadeh – from al-Shati (beach) refugees’ camp, where he established the first manufacturing unit to produce pistols in 1992, the general supervisor of this work at that time was the current commander in chief of the Qassam Brigades, Muhammad al-Dhaif, “Abu Khaled”.

This unit, which included approximately eight personnel, manufactured “9mm” pistols of the “Goldstar” type which is an underground manufactured derivative of the German-made handgun Walther PP & PPK. The chambering of these pistols is unlikely to be 9×19mm and is more likely to be 9×17mm Short (.380 ACP) due to the PP’s blowback action. Around 30 pistols were manufactured (without rifled barrels since they didn’t have the technical ability to produce them and also because it wasn’t that crucial in close-range shootings of IDF personnel intended to capture their firearms). The manufacturing success rate of the pistols was approximately 50% due to the lack of experience and capabilities, the project ended soon after the beginning of the experiment.

The “Hamas-Uzi” SMG: Encouraging Beginnings

With the stopping of the production line of pistols, a project was established to manufacture the HAMAS-Uzi 9×19mm submachine gun in 1993. About 350 pieces were manufactured and the success rate ranged from 60% to 70%. Work on the project continued until 1996 before the weapons were well-made in quality, the intelligence apparatus led by Moussa Arafat, of the Palestinian authority, pursued and arrested individuals who worked in manufacturing. Headed by Qassami leader Mohsen Shehadeh they brutally interrogated the individuals until the manufacturing sites were exposed and all their equipment and weapons were confiscated, including finished and unfinished weapons and parts halting work on the project completely.

Fig. 4.1. Hamas-Uzi 9×19mm SMG in one of Qassam’s combatant hands (Sources: ARES CONMAT)

In the next part of this series, we will examine HAMASs explosive ordnance manufacturing including hand grenades and rockets.

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