Re: Israel vs Palestine/Lebanon/Iran/Yemen/Syria: a New Middle East War
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Al-Qassam's Ghoul sniper rifles mark Palestinian excellency
Al-Qassam Brigades released cinematic footage of the production process of its "Ghoul" anti-materials sniper rifle, on Wednesday.
The footage took the internet by storm, as enthusiastic supporters of the Palestinian Resistance, toured a military production room of Hamas' military wing. Although much is unknown about these production rooms, the military media has brought to light some of the production processes in footage released since October 7, as part of its psychological warfare targeting the Israeli enemy.
Such facilities are responsible for producing weapons, ranging from small firearms to long-rage artillery rockets that can hit targets 250 km away.
Interestingly, this is the first time that the Brigades reveal, in detail, the production process of the Ghoul rifle, which has been named in honor of martyr Engineer Adnan al-Ghoul, a senior al-Qassam official assassinated by "Israel" in 2004.
Silencing critics
In fact, the Ghoul sniper rifle was first introduced in 2014, during "Israel's" failed invasion of the Gaza Strip. Western media outlets paid special attention to the firearm, which highlighted a huge leap in the Resistance's production capabilities.
At the time, outlets such as the US-based The Washington Post led a media campaign, falsely claiming that the Palestinian Resistance had not acquired the knowledge or expertise to produce such a weapon. The WP published an article, in August of 2014, alleging that the Ghoul is actually the Austrian-made Steyr HS.50 anti-materials sniper rifle.
Although the two rifles are extremely similar, since the Ghoul is a reverse-engineered rifle, the article produced no credible evidence that the al-Qassam Brigades had not produced their own version of the anti-materials rifle.
"Hamas’ claim to have indigenously manufactured this rifle is totally false — from what is visible on the video, it’s clearly an Austrian Steyr HS.50 rifle," Charles Lister, told WP at the time. The Western propagandist said that Hamas probably bought the rifle off of the black market, attempting to belittle the engineering capabilities of the Palestinian Resistance faction.
"While the Qassam Brigades might achieve some level of internal morale boost by claiming things like this, the blatant falsity apparent to experts suggests a level of desperation on Hamas’ part," Lister told WP.
More than nine years after Lister's "expert" remarks, al-Qassam Brigades released the footage titled, "We will continue to kill your soldiers by our locally manufactured snipers," to put all doubts to bed and silence critics.
Read more: Gaza's homegrown weapons: How Hamas, PIJ left 'Israel' in shambles
Ghoul rifle specifications
The single-shot bolt-action rifle was first manufactured to fire 14.5x114 mm cartridges, according to information released by al-Qassam Brigades in 2014. The Brigades also stated that the first iteration of the Ghoul had an effective range of 2 km and anti-materials capabilities.
The updated version of the Ghoul rifle has kept its anti-materials capabilities, as seen in the video published by al-Qassam on December 20. In fact, rounds fired at steel targets penetrated the targets and exploded upon impact.
The newly updated version of the Ghoul rifle uses 12.7x99 mm rounds, similar to the Steyr HS. 50 rifle. The cartridges are also locally produced, as seen in the footage, where al-Qassam fighters work on shaping and filling the rounds, to produce a final product that has dropped Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
The casing of the bullet reads "QASSAM 12.7" matching the Ghoul's receiver which reads "Qassami Ghoul Sniper Rifle."
Adnan al-Ghoul
The Ghoul sniper rifle was deployed on several occasions in the Gaza Strip, specifically on December 5 and 7. In total, al-Qassam fighters confirmed hits on 10 Israeli occupation soldiers to the east of Khan Younis in these two days. In one operation, several snipers shot down at least six soldiers in one area in the al-Rannah axis to the northeast of the city of Khan Younis.
Al-Qassam fighters, through their successful targeting of Israeli occupation forces in 2014 and 2023, have engraved al-Ghoul's name and legacy into stone. The senior engineer and commander was assassinated by an Israeli attack helicopter "leaving behind his work, knowledge, and jihad," al-Qassam's military media wrote in a memorial published this year on the anniversary of his martyrdom.
"Abu Bilal" left behind a number of student engineers who carried on his legacy and worked on producing the Ghoul anti-materials sniper rifle.
A commonality among Resistance factions in Palestine is commemorating the names of their greatest martyrs by naming locally produced devices and weapons after them. Indeed, naming the anti-material rifle after Adnan al-Ghoul ensured "that even after his martyrdom, [the Resistance leader's] name continues to haunt the [Israeli] occupiers, who believed that with his death, they would find relief from his [acts of Resistance]."
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