(20:00) Gaza-bound ship filled with weapons captured off Haifa
| By The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition Staff | May, 07 2001 |
Naval forces assisted by IAF helicoptors captured a fishing boat loaded with a massive quantity of advanced arms and ammunition bound for the Palestinian Authority-controlled Gaza Strip.
The Lebanese vessel - with a cargo of Katyushas, anti-aircraft rockets, mortars of various calibers, and massive quantities of ammunition - left port on Saturday and began sailing south for a Gaza rendezvous.
During this evening's IDF news conference in Haifa announcing the vessel's capture, OC Navy Adm. Yedidya Ya'ari said that Ahmed Jibril, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, was responsible for the arms shipment.
The cargo included SA-7 Strella hand-held anti-aircraft missiles, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), anti-tank mines and other types of rockets used against various armored vehicles.
This weaponry is significantly more sophisticated than that currently used by the Palestinians.
The navy intercepted the boat Saturday off the coast of Haifa, outside of Israeli territorial waters, the source said.
The IDF Spokesperson released a comprehensive inventory listing the arsenal found aboard the Lebanese vessel:
- 20 Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs)
- 9 RPG sights
- 100 PG-7 rockets
- 50 OG-7 rockets
- 150 RPG charges
- 120 RKG anti-tank grenades
- 4 SA-7 surface-to-air Strella missles
- 2 60 millimeter mortar launchers
- 98 60 millimeter mortar shells
- 50 107 millimeter Katyusha rockets
- 70 anti-tank mines
- 24 hand grenades of various types
- 30 Hungarian Kalashnikov assault rifles
- 116 Kalashnikov ammunition magazines
- Approximately 13,000 rounds of 7.62 millimeter Kalashnikov ammunition
Katyusha rockets of a 107 millimeter caliber have a much longer range than the 82 millimeter mortars which the Palestinians have been using against Israeli targets, and would enable Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to threaten Israeli cities such as Ashkelon.
Katyusha rockets have a range of approximately 8.5 kilometers.
According to one military intelligence source, other weapons found on the Lebanese ship are powerful enough to strike at Tel Aviv. Also found on board the fishing vessel were cards and maps used to determine firing ranges and distances.
Under the Oslo accords, the PA is forbidden to have mortars or rockets. They are permitted to have weapons such as automatic rifles, which have been used in many of the attacks against Israeli targets.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Knesset today that the Palestinian Authority was attempting to smuggle weapons into its territory.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer also warned today that the Palestinians would very soon be using more deadly weapons than the mortars.
"I think that in the next few days, perhaps the next few hours, you will be faced with a reality which will be simply difficult to believe - what it is that we are confronting," he told Army Radio. "I think that quite soon we will be passing beyond the stage of the mortar bombs."
As early as December 1998, OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon said weapons were being smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
These explosives were smuggled in via tunnels under the border separating Egypt from the Gaza Strip. Dozens of these tunnels are discovered and destroyed by the IDF every year.
In June 1999, the IDF discovered a major tunnel between the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian border town of Rafah, suspected of being used to smuggle merchandise, drugs, fugitives, and possibly weapons.
It was the sixth and most sophisticated tunnel discovered so far that year, having lighting, a telephone system, air conditioning, and a small rail line running from end to end, like in a coal mine.
The army said the 75-meter long tunnel extended beneath the Israeli-controlled border fence and road which splits the town of Rafah.
"You can't walk upright in it, since it's only 90 centimeters high, but the tunnel had carts which moved smoothly along the rails," said one military source.