The al-Bana rocket launcher is a weapon developed by Hamas

Hamas

Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...

's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades is the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist fundamentalist socio-political organisation Hamas. Created in 1992, under the direction of Yahya Ayyash, the primary objective of the group was to build a coherent military organisation to support the goals of...

 under the direction of Adnan al-Ghoul

Adnan al-Ghoul

Adnan Al-Ghoul was the assistant of Mohammed Deif, the leader of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. He was eliminated in a targeted killing along with Imad Abbas when an Israeli Air Force Apache helicopter fired missiles at their car in Gaza on October 21, 2004...

 and Mohammed Deif

Mohammed Deif

Mohammed Deif Born in 1960, is a commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He gained that position after Israel killed Salah Shehade in July, 2002. Israel suspects him of being a bombmaker and holds him personally responsible for the deaths of dozens of civilians...

. Made from raw material and equipment smuggled into the Gaza Strip

Gaza Strip

thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...

 using tunnels in Rafah

Rafah

Rafah , also known as Rafiah, is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. Located south of Gaza, Rafah's population of 71,003 is overwhelmingly made up of Palestinian refugees. Rafah camp and Tall as-Sultan form separate localities. Rafah is the district capital of the Rafah Governorate...

, the al-Bana was the first example, during the Al-Aqsa Intifada

Al-Aqsa Intifada

The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada and the Oslo War, was the second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence, which began in late September 2000...

, of Hamas' engineers capacity to produce relatively sophisticated weapons. It was to launch Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel

Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel

Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip have occurred since 2001. Between 2001 and January 2009, over 8,600 rockets had been launched, leading to 28 deaths and several hundred injuries, as well as widespread psychological trauma and disruption of daily life.The weapons,...

.

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

Batar

The Batar rocket launcher is a weapon developed by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas during the Al-Aqsa intifada. The weapon was reportedly created and produced in clandestine workshops in the Gaza strip under the direction of Adnan al-Ghoul...

 and is no longer used by Hamas. 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.