DPRK denies Hamas using its weapons: US deflecting role in crisis

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
13 Oct 2023 11:01
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Pyongyang holds the Israeli occupation entity responsible for the bloodshed in Gaza.

The DPRK flag seen at the country’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2021 (AFP)

Pyongyang rejected on Friday claims that its weaponry was utilized by the Palestinian Resistance Hamas in the battle with the Israeli occupation entity, dismissing media reports as attempts by the United States to deflect its responsibility for the war onto another nation.

Military specialists earlier this week claimed that images emerging from the battlefields indicated that Hamas fighters might be armed with DPRK-made weapons, such as "possibly" the F-7 rocket-propelled grenades.

"This could be new supplies or from previous shipments going back as far as 2009," Bruce Bechtol, a researcher and professor at Angelo State University in Texas, said on Friday, suggesting that the weapons might have reached the Resistance group from the DPRK via nations like Iran or Syria.

State news agency KCNA dismissed the allegations, describing them as "a groundless and false rumour[s]."

"It is nothing but a bid to shift the blame for the Middle East crisis caused by (the United States') wrong hegemonic policy onto a third country and thus evade the international criticism focused on the empire of evil," it said.

However, US National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby conveyed his inability to validate the origins of the rockets wielded by Hamas as per recent reports. He further stated that the ongoing war between "Israel" and the Palestinian Resistance would not impact the American security strategies in other global regions, including the Korean peninsula.

Earlering this week, KCNA released a report holding the Israeli occupation responsible for the gruesome and inhumane bloodshed in Gaza.

"The international community claims that this clash was the result of Israel's constant criminal acts against the Palestinian people and that the fundamental way out is to build an independent Palestinian state," the state media reported, citing Rodong Sinmun, a ruling Workers' Party member.

No conditions

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revealed on Thursday that Washington is not placing any conditions on how the Israeli entity can use American-provided weapons in its aggression on Gaza.

The United States announced early this week that it will be supplying "Tel Aviv" with weapons and ammunition to assist it in the war.

"This is a professional military, led by professional leadership, and we would hope and expect that they would do the right things in the prosecution of their campaign," he said at a NATO headquarters in Brussels as Israeli warplanes were targeting residential buildings in Gaza, as admitted by the United Nations.

Genocide then invasion

In the most recent update on Palestine, the Israeli occupation entity said in a statement early Friday that 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza must evacuate within the next 24 hours, hinting at plans to start a much-feared ground invasion of the devastated Strip that has been under nonstop bombing since last Saturday.

Responding to the Israeli announcement, the United Nations warned that this order would be "impossible" to take place, sounding the alarm on "devastating humanitarian consequences.”

"The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation."

Meanwhile, the Israeli bombing of besieged Gaza continued throughout Thursday night for the sixth consecutive day since the launching of the Palestinian Resistance Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, last Saturday morning, in response to the ongoing unbearable Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

The dark-time airstrikes were one of the most violent yet, targeting entire residential neighborhoods and buildings, leaving nothing but dust, debris, and casualties behind as the number of martyrs continues to rise horrifically.

The Palestinian Health Ministry revealed on Thursday that the total number of Palestinian martyrs in the brutal Israeli aggression has surpassed 1,500 and the wounded are now over 6,600, noting that over half of the martyrs are children and women: 447 children and 248 women.

Furthermore, the number of forcefully displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 84,444 people and reached 423,378, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Friday.

As a result of the continued unprecedented Israeli aggression, "most residents in the Gaza Strip no longer have access to drinking water from service providers or domestic water through pipelines," OCHA said. "UNICEF reports some have already begun drinking seawater" in response to the lack of clean water, it added.