The head of the Shin Bet security service was afraid Wednesday that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has an armed force to rival that of Hezbollah

The head of the Shin Bet security service was afraid Wednesday that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has an armed force to rival that of Hezbollah.

"Hamas has military capabilities almost of a state," a spokesman quoted Yoram Cohen as telling the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and defense. "Some of its military capabilities are even better than Hezbollah's," he said.

He said that the movement’s armory had been swollen by advanced weaponry smuggled into the coastal territory from Libya since the fall of Moamer Gaddafi, including shoulder-fired missiles.

Cohen said that Hamas had also developed a sophisticated local arms industry, using computerized lathes to produce rockets of ranges from four to 40 kilometers (25 miles). He said that it currently had 8,000 rockets.