When they’ve been asked in the past, spokesmen for North Korea’s hermit government have insisted that they don’t sell military equipment to terrorist groups. (Perish the thought.) But the evidence is building that Hamas was using some Nork gear when it launched its attack on Israel. Video released by Israeli intelligence, along with discarded hardware collected at the scene of at least one of the attacks shows that the Hamas terrorists were using the F-7 shoulder-fired, rocket-propelled grenade launcher, manufactured by North Korea. The RPG-7 (as it’s also called) is generally used as an anti-tank weapon, and while it is widely used by various militaries, it’s a fairly sophisticated and powerful weapon to be found in the hands of terrorists. So the questions remain… how did Hamas get their hands on it and how many of them do they have? (Associated Press)

Hamas fighters likely fired North Korean weapons during their Oct. 7 assault on Israel, a militant video and weapons seized by Israel show, despite Pyongyang’s denials that it sells arms to the militant group.

The video was analyzed by two experts on North Korean arms. Along with an Associated Press analysis of weapons captured on the battlefield and South Korean military intelligence, the video indicates that Hamas used the F-7 rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-fired weapon that fighters typically use against armored vehicles.

The evidence shines a light on the murky world of the illicit arms shipments that sanction-battered North Korea uses as a way to fund its arms programs.

According to one military analyst who spoke to the AP, this isn’t actually the first time these weapons have shown up in terror attacks, despite North Korea’s claims to the contrary. Some of the grenade launchers have previously been found in interdicted Hamas supply caches. Israel has also released a previously obtained Hamas training video showing one of their fighters hold what appears to be the same weapon with a distinctive red stripe on the warhead.

There are various ways that Hamas could be obtaining this sort of sophisticated weaponry. It’s possible if not likely that North Korea has just been lying about this and they’ve been selling weapons directly to the terrorists. That’s one suggestion that was made by the analyst quoted above. But North Korea also sells arms to Russia, China, and some South American groups. A lot of those weapons eventually find their way to the black market, so the list of potential suspects is lengthy.

In addition to the grenade launchers, Hamas has also been found to use the Bulsae guided anti-tank missile and the Type 58 self-loading rifle, similar to the Kalashnikov. Both are produced by North Korea and distributed globally. One other possibility that has been mentioned is that Hamas got these weapons directly from Iran, which would make sense. Iran is a regular customer of North Korea’s despite being under sanctions and it’s been long established that they have been funding and arming Hamas.

These revelations further dispel the myth that Hamas is some sort of group of ragtag “freedom fighters” who are scraping by with whatever scraps they can find. They are a well-funded and professionally armed military force, largely thanks to the ongoing support of Iran. And that military force was unleashed ruthlessly on hundreds of mostly young civilians attending a music festival without provocation or warning. We shouldn’t lose sight of this when considering Israel’s ongoing response to the attacks. This isn’t a “skirmish.” It’s a war. And that’s precisely how Netanyahu is treating it. Israel didn’t start this war, but they definitely need to finish it.