JERUSALEM: Fox News Digital gained rare access to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Tzrifin Base in Central Israel, where a vast number of confiscated rockets, grenades, drones, sniper rifles, automated weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers, mortars and other military firepower used by Hezbollah and Hamas are stored.
The seized arsenal of weapons â ranging in manufacturers from the Islamic Republic of Iran to Russia, China to homegrown producers in Lebanon and Gaza and even a Nazi-era gun âwere part of the war machinery used by Hamas and Hezbollah against Israeli civilians and the IDF since Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The IDF said Hezbollah also used weapons against Lebanese civilians. Hezbollah and Hamas â members of Irans so-called “axis of resistance.” The terror groups have killed over 300 American citizens according to reports.Â
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The Jewish state fought a multi-front war against Iran and its proxies at the height of the conflict. The remains of Iranian rockets litter the ground outside the weapons storage facility at Tzrifin for journalists to inspect.
Tehran fired rockets into civilian areas during the war, including large cities such as Tel Aviv and Beersheva. Just days after the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran in late February, the Islamic Republic fired a ballistic missile into Beersheba, causing injuries to 19 people.
To the ordinary eye, it is a Herculean challenge to decipher the small Nazi swastika emblem on the German World War 2-era MG-34 machine gun seized at a Hezbollah terrorist compound in Lebanon. But, for the Israeli military commander of the Captured Equipment Evacuation Unit, Lt. Col. (res.) Idan Sharon-Kettler, it is a run-of-the-mill exercise in weapons identification.
The German MG-34 has the “markings of an eagle carrying a swastika stamped on it,” said Sharon-Ketler.
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Sharon-Kettler told Fox News Digital that the Nazi machine gun was used as “propaganda or for morale” of the Iranian regime-backed terrorists in Lebanon. A second Nazi-era assault rifle was confiscated from Hezbollahâthe MP 44 (also termed StG 44).
Hamas and Hezbollah, both of whom are designated by the U.S. as terrorist organizations, employed sophisticated methods to transform vehicles into high-intensity offensive weapons. So-called dual-use technology (equipment that can be used for civilian and military purposes) is the bread and butter of Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Motorcycles like these took Israelis hostages,” said Sharon-Kettler, as he showed an Egyptian Halawa Motors motorcycle that was captured in Israel on 10/7. The Iranian regime-backed Hamas terrorist movement killed over 1,200 people on 10/7, including more than 40 American citizens. Hamas took over 250 people hostage on the same day.
The IDF also captured rockets from Palestinian Islamic Jihad that were used as “propaganda dummies” during
