Shin Bet: Nearly 70 tons of explosives smuggled into Gaza since IDF op

Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin on Sunday briefed the cabinet on ongoing efforts to stem the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of tons of explosives have been smuggled into the Strip since Israel concluded its three-week offensive against the Hamas leadership in January, Diskin said.

According to Diskin, Egyptian efforts to curtail the smuggling across its shared border with Gaza have improved, and several successes have been recorded. "When Israel provides intelligence on smuggling that is about to happen, or is happening, they respond quickly and effectively," he said.

However, Diskin added, since the end of Operation Cast Lead, the express goal of which was to bring an end to rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, 45 tons of raw materials for the production of weapons have been smuggled into the Strip, along with 22 tons of standard explosives, as well as dozens of rockets, mortar shells, and anti-aircraft missiles.

"Organizations other than Hamas," Diskin went on to say, "are pursuing plans to kidnap [Israeli] soldiers and to carry out terror attacks from Sinai into Israel as well as in the West Bank."

Since the end of Operation Cast Lead, and especially since Israel's alleged airstrike on an arms convoy headed for Gaza in Sudan, which was reported in the foreign press, Egypt has begun mobilizing forces on its border with Sudan to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.

The arms shipments are apparently transferred from Iran through the Persian Gulf to Yemen, from there to Sudan and then to Egypt through Sinai and the tunnels under the Egypt Gaza border. The shipments include various types of missiles, rockets, guns and high-quality explosives.

	Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin.
	Photo by: (Kobi Gideon)