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The war between Israel and Hamas has revealed extensive Chinese support for Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups that the U.S. and Israel consider terrorist organizations, according to strategic analyst Guermantes Lailari.
Mr. Lailari, in a report published by the Jewish Policy Center, said that the Israel Defense Forces uncovered large caches of Chinese-made weapons, intelligence-gathering gear and other military supplies during raids in Gaza.
“The IDF found Chinese military equipment in Hamas warehouses, including large numbers of assault rifles (QBZ assault rifles) and grenade launchers (QLZ87 automatic grenade launchers), telescopic sights for rifles and cartridges for M16s, high-end communications equipment, listening devices, tactical military radios and sophisticated explosives,” he said.
Chinese rocket technology was also found in a Hamas weapons laboratory.
China in January denied providing Hamas with military equipment, although Mr. Lailari said that extensive Chinese military backing for Iran is a likely source of the arms.
“Even if the Chinese military supplies discovered in Gaza were provided by Iran, [Chinese] officials knew that Iran forwarded equipment to Hamas,” he said. “Certainly, Iran provided funding and training to use the equipment.”
Chinese military technology also has been found in missiles used by other anti-Israel Iran-backed regional groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and Iraqi Shiite militia groups, he said.
Mr. Lailari, a retired Air Force foreign area officer, stated that Mohammed Deif, the Hamas military wing leader who is suspected of orchestrating the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, received training in China.
In 1996, Mr. Deif was sent by the Palestine Liberation Organization to China, where he studied artillery and rocketry at the People’s Liberation Army’s General Armament Department Ordnance Engineering College in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province.
“During his time there, he married two Chinese Muslim women from Sarta or Dongxiang ethnicity in Gansu (China) and brought them to Gaza in 2000 after he completed his studies,” said Mr. Lailari, a visiting scholar at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University.
“Reports indicate that one of the Chinese wives opened a channel to the Chinese Communist Party leadership to maintain CCP and Hamas communications.”
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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