The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed it discovered a “massive” cache of Chinese-made weapons being used by Hamas militants in Gaza.
A report from local television channel N12 claimed that the weaponry was seized from Hamas fighters amid intensified ground and aerial operations by the IDF.
Israeli officials have reportedly been shown some examples of the captured weapons, though no specific type or precise number was disclosed to the public.
The IDF continues its relentless attacks on Hamas, which carried out a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,140 people.
‘Organized Delivery Process’
According to the N12 report, it is less likely that the Chinese-made weapons were delivered through cargo ships due to the sheer quantity.
Officials are reportedly looking at the possibility that the captured items were brought into Gaza through an “organized process.”
“China has an extensive arms industry. By definition, it does not sell weapons to non-state entities, it certainly does sell weapons to countries in the [Middle East],” Carice Witte, an expert on China-Israel relations, told The Jerusalem Post.
She said it is possible that the weapons sold to Middle Eastern nations ended up “in the wrong hands.”
Not the First
This is not the first recorded instance of Chinese-made weapons being discovered in the middle of an armed conflict.
Last year, a senior presidential adviser in Ukraine claimed that a growing number of components from China are being found in Russian weapons used in the ongoing invasion.
“In the weapons recovered from the battlefield we continue to find different electronics,” Vladyslav Vlasiuk told Reuters. “The trend is now that there [are] less Western-made components but more [Chinese components].”
