Hamas using cease-fire to rearm

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Hamas caught using cease-fire to rearm
'This period will make that our capacities will be stronger than before truce'
Posted: July 08, 2008
2:35 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

 

TEL AVIV – A mysterious explosion at a Hamas training facility in the Gaza Strip today occurred while terrorists were attempting to produce rockets that can hit further inside Israel, Hamas sources told WND.

 

The explosion underscores the Gaza-based terrorists' utilization of a cease-fire agreed to with Israel last month to rearm, train and produce advance weaponry for use against Israel.

 

"It is not really a period of rest. We have been training, receiving religious courses ... we've been producing weapons, working on smuggling everything that can reinforce us," said a senior terrorist in Gaza, speaking on condition his name be withheld.

 

"This period will make that our capacities will be much stronger than before the truce," the senior terrorist said.

 

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Two militants reportedly were killed in a Hamas training camp in the Gaza city of Khan Yunis when an explosion caused a building to collapse.

 

Hamas sources told WND the explosion occurred while Hamas experts were testing a new Qassam rocket they were trying to fit with two engines. Current Qassams run on one engine.

 

The Hamas sources said the goal during the truce is to produce a rocket that can travel 24 kilometers, which will put the strategic Israeli port city of Ashdod within range.

 

Since Israel agreed to the truce last month with the Hamas terrorist organization, at least seven rockets and a handful of mortars have been fired from the territory aimed at nearby Jewish communities.

 

Members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, which is at odds with Hamas, took credit for most of the rocket fire.

 

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