Islamic Jihad platoon commander Basel Mahadi was captured by IDF forces on December 20. During his interrogation, Mahadi described how he and a group of over a dozen other terrorists were brought to Iran to receive military training.
“My commander called me and said that I should go to Iran for a sniper course, I will benefit from it and my salary will increase when I return,” he said.
"I went from the Gaza Strip to Egypt where I stayed for about two weeks, from there I went to Syria for a few days and then to Lebanon. After two weeks we went from Syria to Iran," he described.
"In Iran, the course was 15 days. It had physical fitness training and shooting training on different types of weapons."
For four days, they were trained to fire Kalashnikov rifles at distances of 100 meters (328 feet). After that, they were trained for five days to fire at distances of 150 meters (492 feet). Finally, they received six days of training with Dragunov sniper rifles at distances of 300 meters (984 feet).
Mahadi said that while he did not receive training in the firing of rockets during this course, other terrorists who participated in the courses did receive such training at the time.