An Israeli security research organization has assessed that North Korea's underground tunnel techniques could have been transferred to Palestine's Hamas militants through Lebanon's Shia Islamist militant group, Hezbollah.

Speaking to Radio Free Asia on Tuesday, Sarit Zehavi, head of the Alma Research and Education Center, said that while it is unclear if Hamas obtained the technique directly from the North, the regime is believed to have shared it with Hezbollah.

Stating that the Lebanese group’s tunnel techniques were based on the North's system, Zehavi said it is possible that the tunnels Hamas used to launch an attack on Israel at the beginning of the month indirectly tapped Pyongyang’s experience.

The researcher noted that tunnels in Gaza were strategically built to accommodate the passage of militants, vehicles, and military supplies, and Hamas likely received technical input to deal with the geographical features of Israel, which resemble those in the North.

In a 2021 report, the center claimed that the North's Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation had provided Hezbollah's Jihad al-Bina construction firm with its cutting method and materials in a deal worth 13 million U.S. dollars.

The report said the technology is also believed to have been transferred to Hamas for use in the excavation of tunnels that are referred to informally by Israel as the "Gaza Metro."

[Photo : YONHAP News]