Hamas militants likely used North Korean RPGs and assault rifles in the October 7 attacks on Israel, reports say

• Hamas militants who carried out the October 7 attacks on Israel may have used North Korean weapons.
• Israel captured a number of North Korean F-7 rocket-propelled grenades during the fighting.

Hamas militants likely used some weapons from North Korea in the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, arms experts have said.

Israeli forces seized a number of North Korean F-7 rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) from the Palestinian militant group during the conflict, The Associated Press reported.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff also told journalists that it believed Hamas used the F-7 in the attack, per The AP, while The Washington Post obtained a Hamas field manual, dated to last year, that was found on the body of one fighter and that included instructions on how to operate F-7 RPGs.

"North Korea has long supported Palestinian militant groups, and North Korean arms have previously been documented amongst interdicted supplies," N.R. Jenzen-Jones, an arms and munitions intelligence specialist and director of the Armament Research Services consultancy, told the AP.

"Many North Korean weapons have been provided by Iran to militant groups, and this is believed to be the primary way by which Palestinian militants have come to possess North Korean weapons," he said.

The F-7 RPG is a shoulder-fired weapon that is distinguished by a bright red stripe across its single warhead. It is usually used against personnel and armored vehicles.

Jenzen-Jones added that images he had seen of the Hamas attacks on October 7, which led to the deaths of 1,400 people in Israel and the taking of around 200 hostages, suggested that the group's fighters also used North Korean Type 58 rifles.

The Type 58 is an automatic rifle that "closely mimics" the famous Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle, according to the Royal Armouries.

Pyongyang has long denied supplying Hamas with weapons, saying through its state-run Korean Central News Agency last week that the claims were a "groundless and false rumor" spread by the United States.

North Korea has also been accused by the West of supplying Russia with weapons in its invasion of Ukraine.