Illustrative image.
The al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas Movement, has released video footage showing its fighters using a Chinese-made HJ-8L anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) against the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip for the first time ever.
The ATGM attack took place in the area of Tell Zaroub near the southern Gaza city of Rafah on June 23. At the time, the al-Qassam Brigades claimed that the missile was fired from an Ofek command and control armored vehicle. However, footage released the next day revealed that the target was the combat engineering version of the Namer armored personnel carrier.
The HJ-8L is a lighter version of the original HJ-8 that can be carried by just two fighters. The system can fire two types of missiles, one with a range of three kilometers and another with a range of four kilometers. Both missiles are thought to be armed with tandem high-explosive anti-tank warheads.
The missile scored a direct hit against the IDF’s Namer. The Windbreaker active protection system installed on the vehicle didn’t work. It is unclear however if the ATGM attack resulted in any casualties.
HJ-8L was not spotted with al-Qassam Brigades or any other Palestinian armed factions in Gaza before. This suggests that the system was supplied recently.
It remains unclear how the system found its way into Gaza. One possibility is that it came from Sudan, which produces a licensed copy of the HJ-8L dubbed “Sarib”. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was accused of smuggling weapons to Gaza from Sudan via Egypt in the past.
Overall, the surprise appearance of the HJ-8L in Gaza represents a blow to the IDF, which has clearly failed to stop the flow of weapons into Gaza even after occupying the Strip’s border with neighboring Egypt.
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