Israel bags thousands of Gaza-bound military gloves
Shipment smuggled in consignment of clothes at Kerem Shalom crossing; truck, contents confiscated
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
An attempt to smuggle thousands of military tactical shooting gloves into the Gaza Strip was thwarted by border crossing officials, the Defense Ministry said Monday.
The gloves were hidden in a shipment marked as clothing and brought to the Kerem Shalom crossing on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement. Security checks carried out by border control staff uncovered the gloves.
Officials believe the gloves, which help users maintain a better grip on a gun and also protect the hands during combat operations, were intended for the Hamas terror group, which has controlled the Gaza Strip for over a decade.
IDF Col. Fares Attila, head of the Defense Ministry’s Coordination and Liaison Department, said Hamas was trying to exploit Israel’s regulations regarding civilian goods in order to stock its military.
“The Hamas terror group tries time and again to use Israeli civilian policies for the terror purposes it is advancing at the expense of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “We will continue to thwart and prevent exploitation of the civilian policies for terror purposes and the needs of the Hamas terror organization.”
The truck that was transporting the shipment and the rest of its goods was impounded by the joint task force responsible for combating attempts to smuggle goods into the Gaza Strip, the statement said.
The task force is made up of representatives from the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Shin Bet security service, Israel Police, the Tax Authority and the Crossing Authority.
“Attempts to smuggle military equipment into Gaza are part of the daily war that is mostly hidden from the public eye and is carried out by the best of security checkers,” said Ami Shaked, the head of the Kerem Shalom Crossing Authority.
The announcement of the smuggling attempt as Israel has been registering its stark disapproval of a recent power sharing agreement between Hamas and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority that does not mandate the disarmament of Hamas.
In October, Defense Ministry Crossing Authority officials intercepted a shipment of military-style boots bound for the Gaza Strip that had been hidden inside colorful, cartoon-adorned slippers.
Thousands of olive green, black and camouflage army boots, made by the specialty Magnum Boots and Apparel company, were sewn inside bedroom slippers decorated with various emojis, simple cartoons that are often used in social media and smartphone messages.
They were discovered while the shipment was being inspected at the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Also on Monday, the IDF said it apprehended a man who crossed the border fence into Israel from the southern Gaza Strip. The man, who was not armed, was detained close to the point where he crossed the border and taken away for questioning.
Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
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