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JERUSALEM (AFP) - The head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency said on Sunday that "massive" amounts of sophisticated weaponry had been brought into Gaza during the protracted breach of its border with Egypt.
"Over the past days, massive amounts of weapons were moved into Gaza," a senior Israeli official quoted Yuval Diskin, the head of the Shin Beth internal security agency, as telling the weekly cabinet meeting.
"As far as we know, these were weapons of high quality, including long-range rockets, anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and other rocket-manufacturing materials that are usually much harder to bring into Gaza," he said.
Gaza militants blew open the border between the Hamas-run territory and Egypt on January 23 amid a punishing Israeli blockade, with Egyptian and Islamist forces resealing the frontier on Sunday.
The breach -- during which half of Gaza's 1.5 million population is estimated to have crossed the border -- "allowed the return of many militants from Iran, Syria and Egypt," Diskin said.
"These people have accumulated a great deal of knowledge and were trained in Iran and other places and are now expected to contribute to the improvement of terrorist activities in Gaza," he said.
Israel has launched repeated air and ground operations against Gaza militants in a bid to stop persistent rocket fire from the territory. Both the rocket attacks and the Israeli reprisals have dropped off drastically since shortly before the border breach.
The Shin Beth chief said the Sinai peninsula, just across the border into Egypt, had now become the "soft belly of Israel's security because terror organisations have transferred dozens of terror activists there".
"The Shin Beth has identified at least 30 routes to penetrate Israel from the Sinai into the Negev," Diskin added.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak are pushing for the resurrection of a mothballed plan to build a barrier the entire length of Israel's 250-kilometre (150-mile) border with Egypt.
"There is a real need for a fence and we are holding discussions on the issue," the official quoted Olmert as saying.
The plan to construct a border barrier was first brought up several years ago but abandoned because of the high estimated costs.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080203/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaisrael
"Over the past days, massive amounts of weapons were moved into Gaza," a senior Israeli official quoted Yuval Diskin, the head of the Shin Beth internal security agency, as telling the weekly cabinet meeting.
"As far as we know, these were weapons of high quality, including long-range rockets, anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and other rocket-manufacturing materials that are usually much harder to bring into Gaza," he said.
Gaza militants blew open the border between the Hamas-run territory and Egypt on January 23 amid a punishing Israeli blockade, with Egyptian and Islamist forces resealing the frontier on Sunday.
The breach -- during which half of Gaza's 1.5 million population is estimated to have crossed the border -- "allowed the return of many militants from Iran, Syria and Egypt," Diskin said.
"These people have accumulated a great deal of knowledge and were trained in Iran and other places and are now expected to contribute to the improvement of terrorist activities in Gaza," he said.
Israel has launched repeated air and ground operations against Gaza militants in a bid to stop persistent rocket fire from the territory. Both the rocket attacks and the Israeli reprisals have dropped off drastically since shortly before the border breach.
The Shin Beth chief said the Sinai peninsula, just across the border into Egypt, had now become the "soft belly of Israel's security because terror organisations have transferred dozens of terror activists there".
"The Shin Beth has identified at least 30 routes to penetrate Israel from the Sinai into the Negev," Diskin added.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak are pushing for the resurrection of a mothballed plan to build a barrier the entire length of Israel's 250-kilometre (150-mile) border with Egypt.
"There is a real need for a fence and we are holding discussions on the issue," the official quoted Olmert as saying.
The plan to construct a border barrier was first brought up several years ago but abandoned because of the high estimated costs.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080203/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaisrael
