Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar spoke on Al-Aqsa TV and vowed that his terror group has thousands of missiles that will turn Israeli cities into ghost towns, The Middle East Media Research Institute [MEMRI] . The speech was aired on November 4.
In it, Sinwar claimed his terror group has “thousands of traps,” hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels, and thousands of anti-tank missiles produced in Gaza.
He threatened that if Israel makes any “stupid” mistake, Hamas can turn Israeli cities into ghost towns. “We will crush Tel Aviv and cause its sirens to wail,” he said, “morning evening and night for six months.”
On Tuesday, sirens were heard in Tel Aviv and many residents stayed home after IDF forces killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad [PIJ] leader Bahaa Abu al-Ata.In response, the PIJ fired hundreds of rockets on Israel, leading to school and work being cancelled not only in Gaza border communities but also at central Israel in the city which often refers to itself as “a city that takes no breaks.”
Should the IDF invade the Gaza Strips, Sinwar promised Hamas fighters will “emerge from the belly of the earth” and destroy IDF tanks with missiles made in the Gaza Strip. He vowed that, should it be the will of Allah, “we will turn the strongest tanks in the world, the Merkava IV, into ash covered metal.”
Sinwar did not mention the Merkava IV by chance, in all recent clashes between IDF forces and terrorist groups most enemy fighters were killed by tank fire, Mako reported.
The Merkava IV tank is designed with a new helmet, which allows the tank team leader to operate it without extending his head out of the unit, risking sniper fire. The helmet has Virtual Reality features, meaning teams can “see through” the tanks as they operate.
He also claimed that Hamas ran out of pipes with which to make anti-tank rockets at one point and a “simple farmer” led them to irrigation pipes left by the Israelis after the evacuation of Gush Katif in 2005, which were dug up by Hamas and used to make weapons against IDF soldiers.