by Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters
Intelligence sources believe Iranian cargo vessel loaded with rockets could be heading to Gaza, Sunday Times reports • "We will attack and destroy any shipment of arms to Gaza once we have spotted it,” Israeli source says.
Israeli sources believe an
Iranian shipment that could be headed to Gaza includes Fajr-5 rockets
(pictured), like those launched by Hamas into Israel in the latest round
of fighting.
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Photo credit: AP  |
Israeli satellites have detected a cargo
vessel docked at an Iranian port being loaded with rockets and other
weaponry, which analysts believe may be headed toward Gaza, the British
Sunday Times reported on Sunday.
The weapons were being prepared for loading at
the port of Bandar Abbas last week, according to the report, as Israel
and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire following eight days of fighting in
Gaza during which some 1,500 rockets, many of them Iranian-made, were
fired into Israel.
“Regardless of the cease-fire agreement, we
will attack and destroy any shipment of arms to Gaza once we have
spotted it,” said an Israeli defense source quoted by The Sunday Times.
Israeli intelligence sources believe the cargo
will pass through the Red Sea, Sudan and Egypt, traveling on a
well-known route used by Iran to smuggle arms into Gaza, the report
said.
Sources say the shipment may include Fajr-5
rockets, similar to those launched by Hamas into Israel in the latest
round of fighting, as well as Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, which could
be stationed in Sudan to pose a threat to Israel, according to the
report.
“With a lot of effort, Iran has skillfully
built a strategic arm pointing at Israel from the south,” the Israeli
source was quoted as saying.
“We believe that Iranian warships anchored in
Eritrea will accompany the weapons ship as soon as it enters the Red
Sea,” another Israeli source told the Times.
On Saturday, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud
al-Zahar showed how fragile the cease-fire with Israel remained, with
defiant remarks to reporters saying the Islamists would go on smuggling
weapons "by all possible means," including via Iran.
"We have no choice but to continue to bring in
weapons by all possible means," Zahar said, adding that he expected
Tehran would "increase its military and financial support to Hamas."
"We have a right to take money and weapons
from Iran. They [Iran] give to us for the sake of God, no conditions
attached, and I am a witness to that," Zahar told reporters.
In a rare phone call to Hamas' Gaza leader
Ismail Haniyeh, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised what he
called Palestinian "resistance and perseverance" against Israel, which
he said must now "bow" to Palestinian rights, IRNA news agency reported.
Zahar said that after Hamas' rain of rocket
fire that reached as far as Tel Aviv and paralyzed swathes of southern
Israel, "the Jews will think twice before" attacking Iran.
Some analysts say otherwise, however, pointing at how
the Israeli military inflicted serious blows to Hamas' weapons arsenal,
showing the world it has cutting-edge technology, particularly when it
comes to missile defense.
Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6520
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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