Daily Alert Archives

Chief of Staff: Arms Smuggled to Gaza Originate in Iran

(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon and Matthew Gutman - IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon told the Cabinet the arms being smuggled through tunnels in the Rafah area originate in Iran, and - with Hizballah's help - are brought to the region through Africa. A senior military source said that while Egypt makes "some effort" to control and combat the tunnels honeycombing the Egyptian-Gaza border, RPG's, rifles, explosives and ammunition continued to flow by the tons into the Palestinian side of Rafah in 2003. "Egypt does not like the arms smuggling any more than we do," he said. "But they could do much more in this department." Israeli sources cautioned that if Egypt plans to play a constructive role once Israel evacuates the Strip, it must begin by stopping the tunnels now. Ya'alon said the IDF does not demolish buildings without a reason, and only when the tunnels come up through the buildings themselves, or when the Palestinians use the buildings and homes to fire on IDF troops. He also said that most of the demolished buildings were already abandoned by their residents before the bulldozers moved in. Ya'alon said the IDF will not fall back into a strictly defensive mode. In order to prevent terrorism, he said, it is necessary to attack, to keep the terror organizations off balance, to hit their leaders, their infrastructure, and their bases. The underlining principle is to keep them so busy with their own defense that they are unable to carry out any attacks.
2004-05-17 00:00:00
Full Article