Illustration Paraglider Photo: Courtesy freepik.

The Israel Defense Forces, together with Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, thwarted Hamas-planned attacks in which terrorists would cross into Israel with armed paragliders, Israeli news website NRG reported on Wednesday evening.

The paragliders were allegedly trained in Malaysia, as part of an elite terror unit, the Nukba force, whose mission was to attack one of the Israeli towns close to the border with Gaza. The information was gleaned from a Hamas cell commander who was arrested and interrogated on July 20 in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. According to the commander, the plan was already in advanced stages, NRG said.

Hamas’s Nukba force, which the Hamas commander was a part of, is also trained in guerrilla warfare, demolitions, anti-tank ambushes, and kidnapping. The detainee, who was recruited to Hamas in 2007 and sent straight to the Nukba force, even pointed out a Red Crescent building in Khan Younis in which a sniper was stationed on the tenth floor as part of an anti-tank ambush.