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Source: http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20061031-041956-4338r
IDF: Hamas Building an Army in Gaza
[UPI] Joshua Brilliant - The Israeli defense establishment maintains Hamas is building an army in Gaza, partly to fight Israel and partly for a showdown with Fatah. Hamas already has thousands of armed men whose uniforms and conduct demonstrate "elements characteristic of an army," a military source said. The head of the IDF Southern Command, Maj.-Gen. Yoav Gallant, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday that Hamas is building battalion and brigade formations. It smuggles into Gaza two to three tons of explosives a month and is engaged in serial production of weapons. Unless checked, Israel could find itself facing a force "in the scale of a division [10,000 soldiers - similar to the size of Hizballah]." A military source said Palestinians have smuggled large quantities of anti-tank missiles, and over the past year hundreds of thousands of guns, mostly through tunnels. Israel "must not let Hamas and (other) terror organizations build a terrorist infrastructure similar to the one Hizballah built in Lebanon," Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Tuesday.