TEHRAN, November 22 (RIA Novosti) - Iran has transferred arms production technology, but not weapons, to the Palestinian Hamas movement, an Iranian Foreign Ministry source said on Thursday.
Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal said on Wednesday Iran had supplied arms to the Palestinians.
“Iran has only transferred technology, including missile technology to the Palestinians,” the ministry source said.
Earlier on Thursday Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, said Iran has supplied Hamas in Gaza with the technology to “quickly” produce longer-range Fajr missiles on their own without needing direct shipments, according to AP.
Hamas has fired Iranian-made Fajr-5 missiles close to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during the weeklong battle between Gaza and Israel.
Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad claimed their rockets and missiles have destroyed parts of the Israeli regime’s communication systems and hailed Iran’s help for the people in the Gaza Strip against the Israeli attacks, Iran’s Press TV reported.
An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas Islamist group came into effect on Wednesday evening.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has completed its objectives in its Operation Pillar of Defense against the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave of 1.7 million that has been governed by Hamas since 2007. The operation started on November 14 with an airstrike that eliminated the head of the military wing of Hamas, Ahmed Jabari.
The airstrike came after a reported surge in rocket attacks on Israeli border towns from Gaza including one that killed three civilians in Kiryat Malachi last week. Israel says five people have been killed by Palestinian rockets in the last eight days and 240 injured.
Some of the Palestinian rockets were intercepted by Israel's newly-deployed Iron Dome air defense system, the Israel Defense Force said.
Around 160 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's eight-day air and naval attack on Gaza, local officials say. Gaza’s health ministry says many children are among the Palestinian dead.
