I see reports in the news that the Palastinians, Hamas I believe, use crude homemade rockets that are fairly inaccurate. Hezbollah in Lebanon has recently been reported using Katyusha rockets, which are more technically advanced.
Are there technical reasons (too big to smuggle into the country, too much training needed to operate) that prevent Hamas from using the Katyusha? Or are there political reasons (more useful to have Palastinians continue their struggle than to have them win decisive victories) that their allies won’t provide them?
Well, if Israel finds out you’re handing heavy enough weapons to people it considers terrorists, you’ll have a shooting war with Israel on your hands… or maybe the Israelis will try to assassinate you.
That doesn’t mean Iran, for instance, would never choose to hand Katyusha rockets out to either Hamas or Hezbollah.
It does mean they’d be taking a very deliberate gamble by doing so.
As far as the logistics of smuggling the weapons, I could google the size of the fireworks in question, but I have NO idea what the various borders in question have for security.
The Katyusha is a pretty large rocket - hard to hide, hard to smuggle, and hard to launch without being spotted.
Here’s a good article on the Qassam rockets that the Palestinians make. They are quite small, easily hidden, and can be fired from hidden locations. At the bottom of the linked article you can see Katyushas being fired.
The article says that a Katyusha class ‘Grad’ rocket design is being built by the Palestinians, and have been test fired. It’s a rather new development, asnd they haven’t hit any populated areas yet.
Hamas and Hezzbollah are not exactly the same bunch
Hezzbollah are Shi’ite with connections to Syria and primarily Iran
they sit on Lebanon’s Southern border
Hamas are Sunni, although they are also connected to Syria (well their boss is hiding out there), they don’t have any physical ‘gateway’.
The Qassams fired from Gaza probably start off as components from Egypt.
Last time I was in Israel, we were discussing the dope smuggling routes, my friends reckoned Egypt - there was some recent hassle about stuff getting into Gaza from Egypt
arms and dope tend to follow similar paths
The Katyushas are a recent innovation, and have really rattled the Israelis’ cage
It certainly looks as if they are coming into Lebanon from Syria, and from what I’ve heard on the BBC World Service, it sounds as if they are of ex USSR origin, but not with the help of the Russian government.
What has me puzzled is why Syria is going along with this, they are not a ‘Mullah State’, they did an excellent (and unappreciated) job of keeping Lebanon peaceful.
Possibly they are worried by their own youthful population, possibly they feel threatened by Iran, possibly they are demonstrating that ‘Democracy’ does not work in flashpoints.
Personally I would prefer to see them back in Lebanon, as I suspect, would the Israelis.