Anti-aircraft missiles bound for Gaza seized by Egypt
Arms smuggling through Sinai peninsula increasingly problematic as lawlessness prevails
Egyptian security forces seized anti-aircraft missiles believed to be bound for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Ma’an News Agency reported.
Army sappers disarmed the cache comprised of anti-aircraft missiles, several tons of explosives, and explosive devices found in the northern Sinai peninsula on Saturday.
The Sinai peninsula, bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip, has grown increasingly unstable in the year since Hosni Mubarak’s removal from office. On Friday, gunmen kidnapped three Korean tourists and their tour guide. In a similar incident last week, Bedouin kidnappers ransomed two Americans near St. Catherine’s Monastery.
Of greatest concern to Israel, however, is the illegal arms trade and the smuggling tunnels running beneath the Egyptian border to the Gaza Strip. Although commodities and commercial goods reach Gaza through the tunnels, arms and military equipment passes into Hamas arsenals via the underground passages, too.
The Israeli Air Force regularly bombs arms tunnels beneath the Egypt-Gaza border to staunch the flow of weapons into the Strip.