Israeli raid captures arms to Gaza

By Aron Heller, Associated Press

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM — Israeli naval forces raided a ship in the Red Sea early Wednesday, capturing a shipment of dozens of advanced rockets from Iran destined to Palestinian militants in Gaza that would have given them greater reach to strike much of Israel, the military said. The M-302 rockets were en route in an elaborate smuggling operation orchestrated by Iran, the military said.

Manufactured in Syria, the rockets were flown to Iran, then shipped from its Bandar Abbas port to Iraq to cover their tracks and loaded onto the civilian cargo ship destined for Sudan. From there, they were to be smuggled overland through Egypt to the Gaza Strip, military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told reporters.

Israel forces intercepted the ship in international waters off the shores of Sudan and Eritrea, 1,000 miles from Eilat, Israel's southernmost point and only Red Sea port, Lerner said. The M-302 rockets have a range of up to 100 miles and would have significantly improved the capabilities of Gaza militants, putting nearly all of Israel in their range, he said.

Previously, Gaza militants have only been able to reach about 50 miles into Israel. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah used M-302s in a 2006 war against Israel, the military said. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency denied the Israeli claim, calling it “mere lies.”

Abu Attaya, a spokesman for the smaller Popular Resistance Committees, said the Israel raid was a pretext “to prepare the public opinion for new wave of aggression planned against Gaza.” Israel says Iran and militants have used a similar route in the past.

It was not clear how militants would have smuggled the weapons into Gaza, given the naval blockade imposed on it and the current Egyptian leadership's hostility toward Hamas and its blocking of major smuggling tunnels.

The 17-member crew of the Panamanian-flagged vessel cooperated with the Israeli forces, Lerner said, adding they were not suspects and were probably unaware of the content of their cargo.

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping. Filed under the archive’s spelling; the page prints “Tulare Advance Register”.

Context added by this archive

Nine paragraphs, eight of them sourced to the Israeli military or its spokesman, one photo supplied by the Israeli army. The quoted non-Israeli responses are Iran’s ‘mere lies’ and Abu Attaya’s. No Yoaz Hendel in this item despite the slide grouping.

Cite this clipping

"Israeli raid captures arms to Gaza," Tulare Advance-Register, 6 March 2014. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2014-072. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2014-072