An attempt to smuggle explosives into the Gaza Strip from Egypt was thwarted on Independence Day by navy warships patrolling the Mediterranean, it was released for publication on Tuesday. At 3:40 a.m. on May 3, a Davor navy ship spotted a suspicious fishing boat crossing from Egyptian waters into the fishing water off the Gaza Strip coast. Palestinian fisherman are not allowed to enter the IDF-designated buffer zone around Rafah and Gaza, which encompasses several hundred meters.
The navy ship called out for the Palestinian boat to stop. When the boat attempted to evade the navy patrol, the navy opened fire. The Palestinian boat hid behind another fishing boat, and the crew began to heave large sacks into the water. The navy commander decided not to pursue the boat and ceased fire from fear that innocent Palestinian fisherman in the vicinity would be harmed. The fishing boat then slipped away into a crowd of hundreds of Palestinian craft.
Two days ago, the navy sent an underwater retrieval unit to inspect the sacks' contents. A robot was sent down, located the sacks them at a depth of 30- meters, and took a sample. The thirteen sacks contained a total of 550 kilograms of TNT. According to Maj. Oren Raba, head of the navy underwater retrieval unit, the explosives had been scavenged from dismantled mines.
Col Yoram Lex, commander of the Ashdod Naval Base, said that the explosives could have been used to manufacture Kassam rockets to be employed in attacks on IDF troops. "This attempt is significant, since the high-quality explosives discovered could have been used in devastating terror attacks against Israel." Lex told The Jerusalem Post. According to a senior IDF officer, Palestinians in Gaza have recently encountered a shortage of TNT. Security officials recently estimated that the explosives used in the recent al Qaida bombing in Sinai were also constructed from mines left over from previous wars that were dismantled by Beduins living in Sinai.
Since Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, the Israel Navy has thwarted three attempts to smuggles explosives and weapons into Gaza, as well as an attempt to detonate a bomb near an Israeli warship. |