A select group of Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip have undergone extensive military training recently in Iran, turning them into expert operators of sophisticated anti-tank missiles The IDF believes that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have obtained several hundred advanced Russian-made antitank missiles -- such as the Kornet and the Fagot -- which have a range of more than 4 kilometers and are capable of penetrating armored personnel carriers and some IDF tanks. Terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip had a small number of these missiles ahead of Operation Cast Lead -- Israel's offensive against Hamas in 2009 -- but only used them in a handful of known instances. The anti-tank missiles are obtained by Hamas in several different ways. In some cases, they are purchased directly from Russia by Syria and are then transferred to Hamas or Hezbollah. In other cases, Hamas operatives buy the weaponry on the black market and then smuggle it into the Gaza Strip via the tunnels it maintains under the Philadelphi Corridor. In face of threat, the IDF is moving forward with plans to install the Trophy active protection system on Merkava Mk 4 tanks that are in production ahead of their delivery to the 401st Armored Brigade. Two of the brigade's battalions have already received the system and the remaining battalion will finish receiving it by the beginning of 2012. The Trophy system creates a hemispheric protected zone around armored vehicles such as the Merkava tank, which operate primarily in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Using advanced radar, the system is designed to detect and track a threat and counters it with a launched projectile that intercepts the anti-tank missile.
