The Los Angeles Times is reporting this morning that the military wing of Hamas said it had launched drones into Israel -- one of them downed by an Israeli Patriot missile.
See the article here as well as an image from a video released Monday by the military wing of Hamas showing the Ababil drone.
http://www.latimes.com/...
Like Hezbollah, Hamas has threatened to use a drone packed with explosives for a kamikaze-style attack on Tel Aviv or other Israeli population centers where Hamas rockets have not inflicted significant damage.
And as a Council on Foreign Relations report noted last month, "drones are, in many ways, the perfect vehicle for delivering biological and chemical agents.’’
"Hamas is looking for small victories,’’ said Sarah Kreps, a Cornell University professor and coauthor of a new report on drone proliferation. "And to some degree, deploying even a rudimentary drone – whether with real or mock-up missiles – is an accomplishment since it already goes beyond what most states have been able to accomplish.’’
Estimates are that Hamas' drone has a wing span of 9.5 feet, with a range of 160 miles, sufficient to reach almost any part of Israel. Experts state that Iran is probably the source providing drones to Hamas.
The drone was probably provided by Iran and assembled in the Gaza Strip, experts said. They are not certain that the drone carried working weapons, although a video provided by Hamas’ military wing purported to show missiles strapped under the aircraft’s wings. The video has not been authenticated.
If Iran did provide the craft from its own expanding program, a test flight over Israel would permit a test of its capabilities without confronting Israel directly.
“I imagine Iran would like to take one of their drones out for a test spin and get themselves some real-world combat experience,” said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org. “They’d like to know how fast the Israelis could take it down. Well, they just learned something.”
The spread of drone technology into the hands of insurgent groups "is what we’ve been fearing for a while,’’ said Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.
Although questions remain about the sophistication and capabilities of the Hamas drone, Schanzer said, "the Israelis are taking this very seriously.’’
Clearly, Iran is continuing with its plan for the destruction of Israel, providing drones to both Hamas and Hezbollah.
Hamas has been working on a drone, probably with Iranian help, since at least late 2012, said Jeffrey White, a defense fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
While the effectivness of its drone program does not appear to be that successful at this point due to logistics, etc., Hamas, with continued assistance from Iran, will continue committing terrorist acts against Israel. And their willingness to reject a cease fire clearly shows they don't give a damn about the Palestinian people.