As if things couldn’t get any worse with Hamas, the Gaza-based terror organization is supposedly in secret talks with North Korea to purchase weapons, The Telegraph reported.
In a secret arms deal, Western security sources revealed that Hamas is attempting to bolster its arsenal with advanced weaponry and communication equipment that would allow them to maintain their weakening onslaught against the Jewish state.
The deal, which is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, is reportedly being handled by a Lebanese trading company with close ties to a militant Palestinian organization in east Beirut.
“Hamas is looking for ways to replenish its stock of missiles because of the large numbers it has fired at Israel in recent weeks,” a security official told The Telegraph. “North Korea is an obvious place to seek supplies because Pyongyang already has close ties with a number of militant Islamist groups in the Middle East.”
With an already large cash down payment on the weaponry, Hamas is said to be eager to close the deal as quickly as possible with North Korea. Should the two agree, Hamas will be supplied with hundreds of new missiles as well as communication equipment that would allow terrorists to better coordinate their attacks.
The relationship between Hamas and North Korea is not new. The North Korean regime has already established close ties with other radical Islamist groups such as Hezbollah, united in their desire to destroy the West.
Hamas and North Korea’s partnership first came to the attention of the world stage in 2009 when 35 tons of arms were intercepted when the plane carrying the arms had to make an emergency landing at Bangkok airport.
The shipment, which included surface-to-air missiles and rocket propelled grenades among other weaponry, was later confirmed by investigators to be destined for Iran, where the weapons would later be smuggled to Hezbollah and Hamas.
With the ongoing offensive against Hamas under Operation Protective Edge, Israel has said that it would be focusing a large part of the military’s efforts on dismantling Hamas’s terror tunnel infrastructure which runs from Gaza into Israel.
Israeli officials believe that Hamas has gleaned a treasure-trove of information on how to build the tunnels from North Korean experts. North Korea has one of the most sophisticated tunnel networks running under the demilitarized zone with South Korea.
