The al-Bana () rocket launcher is a weapon developed by

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades Al-Qassam Brigades, also known as the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (EQB; ), are the military wing of the Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islamist organization Hamas. Led by Mohammed Deif until his death on 13 July 2024, Al-Qassam Brigades ar ...

under the direction of Adnan al-Ghoul and Mohammed Deif. Made from raw material and equipment smuggled into the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

using tunnels in

Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

, named after

Hassan al-Banna Hassan Ahmed Abd al-Rahman Muhammed al-Banna (; 14 October 1906 – 12 February 1949), known as Hassan al-Banna (), was an Egyptian schoolteacher and Imam, best known for founding the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the largest and most influential g ...

founder of the

Muslim brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

, the al-Bana was the first example, during the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

, of Hamas' engineers capacity. It was to launch

Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched tens of thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip as part of the continuing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The attacks, widely condemned for targeting civilians, ...

. The shoulder-fired al-Bana was extensively used during Israeli Defense Forces incursions to fight against tanks and armored vehicles. The al-Bana was replaced, in 2003, by the more elaborated Batar and is no longer used by

. Slightly modified versions of the al-Bana were made and used by other Palestinian militant groups. In 2004, Hamas engineers provided the group with a new and sophisticated shoulder-fired rocket launcher, the Yasin.

References

See also