Massive quantities of Chinese arms, ammunition, military grade communication and other intelligence gathering equipment were found in the warehouses of Gaza during raids conducted by the Israel Defence Force (IDF) in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by the Palestinian group At least two tunnel engineers from China’s Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) were captured by the IDF, suggesting that extensive Chinese help was given to Hamas to construct two tunnels under Gaza city.
Apart from this, the PLA has been giving training to Hamas. In fact, the head of the Hamas military wing Mohammed Deif, who masterminded the attack on Israel lived in the PRC for years and maintains deep contact with the PLA and CCP (Chinese Communist Party). Allegedly he has two Muslim wives. This was disclosed by the Guermantes G-Man Lailari, a retired US Airforce officer (Foreign Area Officer) specialising in counter-terrorism, irregular warfare and missile defence.
Lailari says that it is time nations hold PRC to account for the support it offers to various terrorist groups, including Hamas. The Peoples Republic of China and its connection with Hamas has been a matter of speculation Lailari alleges that inspite of the Chinese denials of any involvement in the Hamas attacks, there is enough evidence to take China to the ICJ (International Court of Justice) for its support to terrorism. He says that it is not Iran, but the PRC that it is hidden hand that green signalled the Hamas attack on Israel.
Lailari, who is now currently based in Taiwan, where he is a visiting research fellow at the Institute of National Defence and Security Research (Division of the Chinese politics, Military Warfighting Concepts) was in India last week and spoke in depth on China’s involvement in malign activities specially after its connection with Hamas.
According to him, the IDF found in Gaza, large and massive numbers of Chinese weapons, intelligence gathering equipment and other military supplies. Hamas warehouses had the Chinese QBZ Assault Rifles and QLZ87 automatic grenade launchers, telescopic sights for rifles and cartridges, high end communication equipment, listening devices, tactical military radios and sophisticated explosives along with rocket technology in Hamas laboratories. Lailari says that it’s likely that China supplied the weapons via Iran and thereby insulating itself from any charges of direct involvement.
Additionally, that both the Chinese tunnel engineers fond in Gaza tunnels belonged to the PLA, gives reasons to suspect the PRC and technical expertise that the PRC, the PLA in particular provided in building the tunnels, says Lailari. He also said that Mohammed Deif, who heads the Hamas military wing was sent to the PRC in the 1990s and by then the PLO. Deif finished his studies in artillery and rocketry in the PLA’s Generals Armament Department Ordnance Engineering College in Hebei province in 200o and then joined Hamas.
While in China, he is said to have married two Chinese Muslim Women of Dongxiang ethnicity. Lailari’s sources have told him that it is through one of Deif’s wives that a direct channel of communication between Hamas and Chinese leadership was opened. Hamas was preparing for attacking Israel since at least from 2020. It also carried out four military exercises with ten other terrorist groups to prepare for the October 7, 2023 attacks.
Three of these exercises were held on December 29, 2020, December 26, 2021 and December 28, 2022. However, the fourth exercise was brought forward to September 12, 2023. Lailari wonders what made the Hamas bring forward the exercise. Was the attack planned for October 2023 to derail the probable normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia as part of the Abraham Accords? The announcement was all set to take place when the attack happened.
Lailari says that the US-initiated truce would have brought the Saudis, who were perceived to be drifting towards the PRC, back in the US sphere of influence; it would have also brought two of the strongest powers of the region, Israel and Saudi Arabia both US allies on the same page, thus limiting PRC’s influence in West Asia.
The announcement of the India-initiated India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC), at the G20 New Delhi Summit on 9-10 September, too was not to PRC’s liking, as the IMEC is seen as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Lailari says, “China was desperate and wanted something to happen”. Post the 7 October 2023 attack and Israel’s response, both the Israel-Saudi accord and the IMEC have been postponed.
Lailari says that the PRC was always soft on Hamas and was in touch with the terrorist organisation in the run upto the October 7 attack. But it never showed its antipathy towards Israel in public. Prior to October 7, 2023, it heavily monitored and censored any antisemitism on Chinese social media. But after the attack on October 7, the PRC opened the gates of Han Supremacism and anti-Semitism. Lailari mentions that PRC never mentions Hamas atrocities. China never criticised the Hamas in public and post the attack it continues to be in regular touch with Hamas.
On 17 March 2024, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met PRC Ambassador to Qatar, Cao Xiaolin and Foreign Ministry envoy Wang Kejian in Qatar. After the meeting, Ambassador Cao stressed on “the close and historic relationship between the Palestinian and Chinese peoples and China’s firm positions towards the Palestinian issue and its standing by the just demands of the Palestinian people for freedom, independence, and statehood.”
Wang stated that Hamas was a “part of the Palestinian national fabric and China is keen on relations with it.” On 1 March 2024, Palestinian factions met in Russia from 29 February through 1-2 March 2024: “The Russian side provided a venue for the meeting between delegates from factions within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), including the Fatah movement, as well as participants from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group. In all, envoys from more than 10 organizations have arrived in Moscow for the meeting.”
On 30 April 2024, the PRC Foreign Ministry announced that Hamas and Fatah diplomats held “in-depth and candid dialogue” to promote reconciliation. Hamas and Fatah agreed to continue the dialogue in June. Lailari connects the Israel-Hamas war with the broader PRC strategy of bogging down the United States and its allies in three major wars as expounded by a PLA strategic thinker in four articles. The first was written in 2018 and the rest in April-June 2023.
According to Kaifeng’s April 2023 article: On a global scale, three major battles are in Europe, the Middle East and Asia respectively. The Ukrainian war represents the European front, the Middle Eastern battle will be a conflict between Israel and Palestine and the Asian theatre might be the second Korean war. Two of these wars have already started and the third war is yet to start.
Lailari has said that the time has come to expose Beijing’s support for Hamas. He says that all evidence in the US has regarding the PRC’s involvement in terrorism should be declassified and publicised. He also says that the countries whose citizens were murdered and taken hostage, more than the 40 by the Hamas should be encouraged to approach the ICJ in the Hague with such evidence to hold the PRC to account
