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Sunrise over the desert. Partygoers dance scantily dressed. Dark spots appear in the sky and slowly approach the kibbutz music festival. The festive mood quickly turns into fear of death. The dots in the sky are Hamas paragliders. Heavily armed warriors land and fire indiscriminately into the crowd. A massacre in the desert sands like the world has never seen. 260 young people die.
Hamas claimed on Saturday morning that it had entered Israel using motorized paragliders to evade air defenses. Footage released by the terrorist group shows the fighters crossing the border into enemy territory using propeller-driven paragliders.
Hamas shows propaganda video
Some fighters strapped the bikes directly to their backs. Others fly on small three-wheeled vehicles called trikes that dangle from parachutes. The fighters display the battle emblem of the air division of the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. They also carry Palestinian flags.
After landing, the fighters are shown storming a building painted with the Star of David. The star is a symbol of Israel and Judaism. The facility is, of course, a training ground.
These are the Hamas paragliders who also stormed the desert music area early on Saturday and caused the massacre. Like drones, which are playing an increasingly important role in the war in Ukraine, paragliders can apparently also be used as a relatively cheap weapon. The “flying” warriors, invisible to Israel, killed very efficiently.
Cheap weapon of war
Backpack motorcycles, umbrellas and trikes – or quads with four wheels – are available for five-figure sums. They fly at speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour and can take off from the ground over short distances.
The use of motorized paragliders appears to have allowed Hamas to evade Israeli air defenses. Although such paragliders are mainly used by amateur athletes, they are also used for military operations. Australian defense company MilSpecPPG has developed such “low-cost, lightweight aerial reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft.”
According to the company, the motorized paragliders are “ideal for covert operations” and “virtually invisible at 250 meters”. “A squadron of propeller-driven paragliders,” says the defense company’s website, “can cover 520 square kilometers at a cost of less than $15 per hour per aircraft – a fraction of the operating costs of other types of aircraft.”
Does Tehran have a hand in it?
There is no evidence that the paragliders used by Hamas on Saturday were supplied by the Australian company. Nevertheless, even a subdued surprise invasion, such as the one by Hamas early Saturday, must be financed.
As the Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday, Iran helped plan the attack on Israel for several weeks. Tehran finally gave the green light at a meeting in Beirut on Monday. This was based on information from leading members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iranian-backed militant group.
Officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are said to have been working with Hamas since August to plan the attacks from the air, land and sea. Saturday saw the largest violations of Israel’s borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Trump’s wild speculations
Former US President Donald Trump (77), who wants to return to the White House in the next presidential elections in 2024, speculated that his successor Joe Biden (80) was partly responsible for the attacks. Without providing any evidence, Trump said: “Unfortunately, American taxpayers helped fund these attacks.”
Trump was referring to allegations that Tehran had funneled the $6 billion it received in mid-September as part of a Swiss-brokered prisoner swap into the current Hamas offensive.
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
