(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Hamas' military wing has reportedly built a model of an Israeli Merkava tank for use in training its fighters in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Magd al-Amni, a website close to Hamas, quoted a leading resistance fighter as saying that the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, had built a 3D model of an Israeli Merkava tank in order to "go from theoretical to practical methods" when training its fighters.
"The aim is to familiarize resistance fighters with the exact dimensions of the Merkava tank, which the Zionist army uses to stage incursions into Gaza," the resistance fighter was quoted as saying.
He said the model had been built to the tank's real measurements and featured all its components and its true range of motion.
Photos of the massive Merkava scale model€ as it was demonstrated at a Gaza training camp € have recently circulated on traditional and social media outlets in both Israel and Palestine.
"Fighters' training will be more effective if they know the real size of the tank € which is over seven meters long €and are able to study its strengths and weaknesses," the resistance fighter said.
Israel has employed Merkavas, one of world's most destructive Main Battle Tanks (MBTs), in three devastating military offensives waged against the Gaza Strip between 2008 and 2014.
During Israel's most recent offensive on Gaza last summer, the Qassam Brigades said its fighters had destroyed a number of Merkava tanks during attempted Israeli ground incursions into the blockaded Palestinian territory.
In July of last year, Israel launched a seven-week-long offensive on the Gaza Strip, with the stated aim of staunching rocket fire launched by resistance fighters from the blockaded coastal enclave.
Over 2,160 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed € and some 11,000 injured € in the offensive, which finally ended with a cease-fire deal signed in August of last year.
At least 73 Israelis € 68 soldiers and five civilians € were also killed during the offensive, which also saw 2,522 Israelis injured, including 740 military personnel.
The number of Palestinian fatalities from Israel's offensive last summer surpassed the combined death toll from two previous operations against Gaza, including Israel's 21-day "Operation Cast Lead" in 2008/09 in which at least 1,500 Palestinians were killed.
The hostilities also led to the highest military death toll for Israel since its 2006 war on Lebanon, in which 119 Israeli soldiers were killed.
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