Showing posts sorted by date for query egypt explosives. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query egypt explosives. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Friday, May 11, 2012

  • Friday, May 11, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
From the IDF Blog:

Very little of what actually goes on in Israel is reported by mainstream media. A lot of incidents are never published–though they’re very significant. Here’s a brief recap of the incidents which were just short of the next big terror attack, but which you probably never heard of:
  • January 2: IDF force captured 2 Palestinian men carrying illegal guns. The two were taken in for investigation near Nablus while the M-16 rifle, an Uzi, and matching ammunition they carried were confiscated by security forces.
  • February 21: A powerful explosive device was uncovered along the Israel-Egypt border. Israeli forces saw a man hurling a suspicious bag and immediately fleeing the scene. The explosive was detonated in a controlled manner. No one was hurt.
I would add that there are countless incidents of Molotov cocktails and large rocks being hurled at cars and buses, which could have fatal results. Those are barely reported by even the right-wing Israeli press because there are so many of them. (Here's a firebomb attack from just today.)

(h/t Mike)

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

  • Tuesday, March 06, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
About a week after its latest repairs were completed, it happened again.

Security officials say militants have again blown up a gas pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula that transports fuel to Israel.

The attack on the pipeline is the 13th since the popular uprising that ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak last year.

Police officials said gunmen attacked the pipeline in the north Sinai city of Arish on Monday. There were no details on the extent of damage. Previous explosions have shut down gas flow for days or weeks.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with police rules.
Six gunmen placed two sets of explosives about 15 meters apart from each other near El Arish.

And Jordan is hurt more by these acts than Israel is, as the kingdom is scrambling to retool their electric generators to run on more expensive oil and diesel.

In a couple of years, Israel should be in a position to export natural gas to Jordan. It will be interesting to see if Jordan will think it is worth it.

According to Wikipedia, the Jordanian gas line also goes to Lebanon and Syria, with planned extensions to Turkey. I have not read anything about how Syria or Lebanon are affected by these repeated explosions; perhaps the amount of gas they get is much smaller.


Tuesday, February 28, 2012

  • Tuesday, February 28, 2012
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Israel's Foreign Ministry:
Israeli Ambassador Yaacov Amitai on Monday, 27 February 2012, presented his credentials to Field Marshal Mohammad Hussein Tantawi, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces. At the official ceremony, during which other ambassadors also presented their credentials, the Israeli anthem was played, along with other national anthems, as is customary.

The presentation of credentials was held in a cordial atmosphere. Speaking at the ceremony, Ambassador Amitai and Field Marshal Tantawi emphasized the importance of the peace agreement and cooperation for both countries.

Ambassador Amitai said: "I will do everything I can to enhance understanding and to foster cooperation between Israel and Egypt."

Amitai has been demanding better security from Egypt, especially in wake of the bombings and attempted bombings of diplomats in India, Georgia and Thailand. On Sunday he refused to leave Cairo's airport until his car was checked for explosives.

Of course, Amitai is utterly dependent on Egypt's security, since the Israel embassy was closed due to some peace-loving riots and he has to do all his work out of his apartment.


Friday, November 11, 2011

  • Friday, November 11, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Egypt's Rose el-Youssef newspaper is reporting that Egyptian security sources are linking the latest gas pipeline bomb to a fugitive Egyptian businessman who had strong ties with Israel before the Egyptian revolution.

Hussein Salem is co-owner of the East Mediterranean Gas Company and was a close friend of Mubarak. He helped broker the agreement to sell gas to Israel and is not a popular person in Egypt because of that. He is being tried in abstentia for siphoning off billions in the deal. He is currently being held in Spain.

Nevertheless, Egyptian security sources have spun a theory where Salem instructed his people to sabotage the gas line so he can sue Egypt and recover the millions of dollars he loses for not being able to send gas to Israel. Salem's Israeli business partner, Yossi Meiman, is said to be involved in the scheme where the sophisticated explosives came from Israel, presumably smuggled over the border by Israeli Bedouin.

Hamas confirms this theory, telling Egyptian security officials that they do not have the type of explosives that were used in the bombing, and saying it must have come from Israel.

Well, there you have it!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

  • Tuesday, August 16, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Ma'an:
Egyptian troops and policemen battled with gunmen in the Sinai peninsula Monday, killing one person and arresting 16 others, a security official and state television said.

The fighting came as the security forces launched raids to hunt down Islamist militants suspected of attacking a gas pipeline to Israel on five occasions this year and police stations, the official said.

Around 1,000 soldiers and policemen forces deployed on Friday and Saturday in northern Sinai to carry out the operation dubbed "Eagle."

A man was killed at dawn Monday during an exchange of fire between suspects wanted by the Egyptian authorities and soldiers and policemen, the security official said.

"Ten people suspected of involvement in the Sinai attacks were arrested," the official said, adding that three automatic rifles and four grenades were also seized.

Egyptian state television earlier reported that security forces also arrested six suspected Islamists, members of a group calling itself the Army of the Liberation of Islam.

The operation came two days after Islamists distributed fliers in Rafah -- signed "Al-Qaeda in Sinai" -- threatening more attacks on police, according to a witness, after a deadly attack at the end of July, two weeks earlier, killed a military officer and three bystanders.
Palestine Press Agency gives details about those arrested - including one from Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Yasser Atiyah Tarabin was born in Khan Younis and lives in Rafah. A member of Islamic Jihad, he was arrested and jailed in Egypt but escaped after the revolution. He was asked to join the Islamist cell "to fight the Jews;" then took him to the El Arish, where he met with other jihadis, received training in martial arts in the Sinai and the Gaza Strip, and he took part in the attack on the police station in El Arish a few days ago. He entered into Egypt through the tunnels, and planned to hit the security headquarters in northern Sinai. He also participated in the procurement of explosives and arms to target the military and the police.

This is not the first time that Gaza terrorists have been found to work with Islamist groups in the Sinai.

Interestingly, Islamic Jihad's mouthpiece Palestine Today is claiming that the Egyptian raid was against Mossad agents!

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

  • Tuesday, July 05, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From the IDF:


May 7th, 2001: Santorini
The Santorini was intercepted on its way from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip. It contained a large shipment of 40 tons of weapons including Strela anti-aircraft missiles—the same kind that terrorists fired at and narrowly missed an Arkia Israeli passenger jet taking off from Mombassa, Kenya in November 2002. The shipment also included mortars, rifles and guns, grenades, mines and explosive material, anti-tank RPG-7 missile-launchers, and artillery rockets.

Three crew members aboard the Santorini were convicted for trying to smuggle weapons from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip—the captain, a professional weapons smuggler and two of his relatives aboard the ships had been involved in three previous smuggling attempts backed by Hezbollah and the PFLP-GC.

The Santorini ship was acquired by the PFLP-GC in a small island off Syria, and registered as Syrian. During previous smuggling attempts by the crew, arms were packed in Syria and transferred to Lebanon by a Syrian bus. Part of the anti-tank weaponry originated from Iran.

January 3rd, 2002: Karin-A
The Karin-A was intercepted in the Red Sea, heading towards the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. It carried 80 submersible containers containing 50 tons of weapons, including: RPG-7 rockets, RPG-18 anti-tank rocket launchers, Iranian-made anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, 2200 kilograms of high explosive demolition blocks, Sagger anti-tank launchers and missiles, as well as rifles, machine guns, AK-47s, 735 hand grenades, 700,000 rounds of small ammunition, and diving equipment. The submergible containers were to be dropped into the sea and then washed ashore to the Gaza Strip or picked up by a smaller vessel and delivered to the Strip.

The Palestinian Authority was heavily involved in the smuggling attempt, especially Yasser Arafat’s former Chief Financial Officer and confidante at the time, Fuad Shubaki. The crew of the Karin-A also included senior members of the P.A . , indicating Arafat’s direct involvement. The ship was purchased in Lebanon and sailed to Sudan and Yemen to pick up civilian goods (watermelon seeds, sesame seeds, rice, toys, and clothes) to disguise the weapons aboard.

June 8th, 2002
Two Palestinians were found swimming along the northern Gaza Strip shore armed with four grenades, an AK-47, and four ammunition magazines in an attempt to infiltrate an Israeli community.

August 4th, 2002
IDF naval forces identified an armed Palestinian wearing a oxygenated scuba diving suit and carrying an AK-47, 8 grenades, 4 ammunition magazines, who was on his way towards an Israeli community from the Gaza coast.

November 23rd, 2002
After many attempts to communicate with an unknown Palestinian fishing boat heading from the Gaza Strip towards the direction of Israel, the bomb-laden boat exploded near an Israeli security patrol boat, moderately injuring three and lightly injuring one.

January 7th, 2003
A suspicious life raft found floating along the northern Gaza Strip coast was found to be booby-trapped with explosives.

May 21st, 2003: Abu Hasan
The “Abu Hasan”, intercepted in waters west of Haifa, was sailing from Lebanon to Egypt carrying a Hezbollah operative specializing in explosives bound for the Gaza Strip. The boat itself was a fishing boat, used purposefully to disguise its intentions. Cargo contained: a radio-activation system to detonate bombs remotely, CDs of directives on how to carry out suicide bomb terror attacks, five boxes with rocket fuses, and 25 Katyusha rocket detonators. The masterminds of the arms smuggling attempt were connected to Arafat’s Palestinian Authority and Hezbollah.

May 9th, 2006
Early in the morning of Israel’s Independence Day, the Israeli Navy spotted a suspicious vessel crossing from Egypt into the southern Gaza Strip. After ignoring repeated warnings issued by the Navy, the Navy opened fire towards the vessel, whose crew then steered the boat to hide behind a Palestinian civilian boat. The crew was then spotted to be tossing large sacks off the vessel into the water. The Navy ceased fire out of concern that the Palestinian civilian boat would be hit, and the suspicious vessel escaped. The large sacks tossed overboard were later found by an underwater robot to contain over 500 kilograms of explosives.

May 14th, 2006
The Israeli Navy spotted a suspicious Palestinian vessel off the coast of the southern Gaza Strip and issued warnings ordering the crew to stop the vessel. Upon receiving the warnings, the crew began to toss large bags off the ship into the water. The Navy apprehended the vessel and detained the crew for questioning. The bags were later found to contain several hundred kilograms of explosives.

There's lots more.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

  • Sunday, May 29, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
A rare voice of relative reason in The Daily News Egypt:
While anti-Israeli attitudes are not uncommon in Egypt, they are becoming more virulent after the revolution so much so that 54 percent of Egyptians prefer annulling the peace treaty with Israel, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center.

The point of interest here is not to morally judge these attitudes, but to examine whether or not their underlying assumptions are logically justified. Three myths about Israel appear to continue dominating Egyptian public opinion:

1. Israel works to weaken Egypt
Common among conspiracy theorists in Egypt is the notion that Israel wants an Egypt that is weakened, divided, and torn by sectarian violence. Deputy Prime Minister Yehia El-Gamal stands out in expressing this notion while in office, though a considerable number of intellectuals and former high-level officials do not hide their belief in it. Typifying this view is the editor of the state-owned daily Al-Ahram who argued that Israel supports the counter-revolution forces in Egypt, citing the rumor that Israeli former chief of military intelligence confirmed his success in sowing seeds of division within Egyptian society.

In fact, a stable Egypt is in Israel’s interest. A divided Egypt might turn into another Iran, where organized Islamists took over a shattered state after a democracy-seeking uprising. Alternatively, it might turn into another Lebanon, where state weakness allows actors like Hezbollah to attack Israel at will. Would Israel be interested in creating a similar situation in which Jihadists join Hamas and operate from Egypt? Of course not.

At best, a chaotic Egypt might turn into a Mexico (or a Pakistan?) where another weak state fails to stop cross-border illegal immigration, drug and weapons trafficking. Thousands of African illegal immigrants enter Israeli territory from Sinai each year, despite measures taken by Egyptian authorities. Skyrocketing numbers of African infiltrators, drugs, let alone explosives, would reach Israel in case the Egyptian government loses control, or is domestically too busy to control borders.

None of these scenarios are good for Israel, and therefore it would certainly be interested not in undermining Egypt, but rather in an in-control, stable government in Cairo to keep the peace, and maintain order on the southern border.

2. Israel wants to occupy Egypt
The conventional view that Israel plans to occupy Egypt or re-occupy Sinai is part of a broader myth that Israel’s long-term strategic objective, out of Jewish religious beliefs, is to rule from the Nile to the Euphrates. Alleged “evidence” maintains that over the Knesset’s entrance hangs a map asserting that “the Land of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates,” and that the Israeli flag’s two horizontal blue lines represent the Nile and the Euphrates rivers. Yet the truth is that there is no such a map in the Knesset, and the lines in Israel’s flag are derived from the design of the traditional Jewish prayer shawl.

The “Greater Israel” claim is as true as the contention that Muslims plan to establish a world-ruling Islamic caliphate. Some ultra-extremists might want to, but the vast majority does not even think of it. First, it would take a fairly insane Israeli leadership to bear the massive military and economic burden of invading a country of Egypt’s scale. Note that occupational experiences have exhausted Israel in areas as small as the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and even the West Bank. Second, paradoxically, this claim contradicts another generally accepted view by the Egyptian public asserting that Israel is militarily superior and enjoys full, unconditional US support. Why, if this really is the case, has Israel not attempted an invasion? The answer is simple: Israel is satisfied with the current status-quo — in which, it perceives, Israel is the one deterring its neighbors and not vice versa — and is not interested in a territorial expansion that would go far beyond its capabilities.

3. Israel is all-powerful
Most Egyptians apparently believe that the premises of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, displayed in an Egyptian TV series titled “A Horseman without a Horse” in 2002, are true. Within this framework, obviously inflated notions — such as that Israel exploited agricultural cooperation with Egypt to either cultivate cancer-causing products in Egyptian soil or export these products to Egypt, and that the Mossad stood behind the December 2010 fatal shark attacks to hit tourism in Egypt’s Red Sea resorts — are easily accepted. Notwithstanding that such allegations have no factual or logical grounds, no one stops to ask why should an Israel facing serious security challenges (Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc.) busy itself with that kind of stuff.

On a larger scale, Israel, or the Jewish people (as people hardly distinguish between Jews and Israelis), is viewed as a mighty force that rules the world through Jewish communities. It follows that any Israeli (or Jewish) economic or cultural activity in Egypt is seen as part of a “grand plan” to penetrate the society and gradually pervade all walks of life. While the Israel lobby in the US and elsewhere is truly powerful, the claim that the Jewish state controls the world provides, unfortunately, a tool to cover up one’s own failures than a realistic proof.

That these misconceptions are shared by a large part of the Egyptian public, which in a representative democracy will significantly influence the foreign policy agenda, is disappointing. That is because the revolution against the old regime has not yet removed old myths which deny the public opinion credible and informed judgments, regardless of whether a democratic Egypt would see in Israel a friend or a foe.


Amr Yossef is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the American University in Cairo

(h/t Callie)

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

  • Wednesday, April 06, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From YNet:
A mystery still engulfs the airstrike which took place near the airport in Sudan's main port city of Port Sudan on Tuesday, as the Sudanese media released first images of the strike's scene

According to a state government official, an unidentified plane bombed a car driving in the vicinity of the airport, killing two people. The aircraft flew in from the Red Sea but it was not clear to whom it belonged, Ahmed Tahir, the speaker of parliament in the Red Sea state where the port city is located, told Reuters.

The plane involved in the strike was "foreign", the Sudan media center said later. The report, quoting a member of parliament, said the car was on the road leading to the Port Sudan airport when it was attacked by the plane, which was following it.

In January 2009, a convoy of arms smugglers was hit by unidentified aircraft in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state according to Sudanese authorities, a strike that some reports said may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons bound for Gaza.

A total of 119 people were killed in that strike near Sudan's border with Egypt, according to state media.

Sudan is a known as a smuggling route exploited by terror groups. Last month, Egyptian security forces claimed that they seized five vehicles transporting weapons to the Gaza Strip. It was reported the weapons were seized along the Sudan-Egypt border and included mortar bombs, grenades, rifles and explosives.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office declined to comment on Tuesday's attack.
Palestine Press Agency indirectly quotes Sudanese intelligence officials as saying that the two killed were a Palestinian Arab - and an Iranian.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

  • Tuesday, March 15, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
It is nice to know that Egypt seems to still be adhering to its security policies:
Egyptian security officials said Tuesday that Egypt's armed forces have seized five vehicles carrying weapons into the country from Sudan, apparently headed for Gaza.

The officials say the vehicles were intercepted inside Egypt Sunday near the border with Sudan, following a shootout during which the truck drivers fled. They said the trucks were carrying large quantities of mortars, rocket propelled grenades, rifles and explosives.

They said they were headed to Hamas-ruled Gaza through smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.

The officials spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity under government regulations.

Israeli intelligence officials say Sudan is a major route for Hamas weapons.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

  • Saturday, February 05, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Ma'an:
An Egyptian-Israeli gas pipeline targeted by an explosion early Saturday in the Sinai supplied Jordan with gas, according to Egyptian officials who said the line was connected to others used by Israel.

The Israeli-Egyptian gas company, East Mediterranean Gas, said attackers blew up a measuring station at the Jordanian sub-line.

The attackers used explosives against the pipeline in the town of Lihfen in northern Sinai, near the Gaza Strip, a security official said. Some media initially said the pipeline to Israel was attacked.

The pipeline which exploded originates in Port Said before it splits off in two directions, one toward Israel and the other to Jordan through the Sinai, Ma'an's El-Arish correspondent reported from the scene.

"The pipeline to Jordan has been attacked and the supply to Israel has been cut off," an official said.

Security sources said foreign saboteurs were suspected and Bedouin forces were on heightened alert.

Egyptian forces shut down the gas supply from the main source immediately after the explosion. The army has taken precautionary measures to stop the fire from spreading, an official said.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible, or whether the attack was linked to the deadly protests against President Hosni Mubarak's rule, which entered their 12th day Saturday.
Egyptians have been vocally opposed Egypt's selling natural gas to Israel, and it seems likely that the saboteurs were trying to blow up the Israel pipeline and made a mistake.

UPDATE: Jordan says that the bombing is going to cost the kingdom some 3 million dinars a day.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

  • Sunday, January 30, 2011
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestine Press Agency, which is rabidly anti-Hamas but whose reporting has generally panned out as true, is reporting exactly what Hamas is doing to take advantage of the chaos in Egypt:

Special units of the Qassam Brigades of Hamas infiltrated through the tunnels deployed on the border two days ago to the city of Rafah in Egypt and then to the towns of Sheikh Zuwaid and El-Arish to support the Sinai Bedouin attacking the centers of the Egyptian security; [the Bedouin represent] the strategic depth of the Hamas movement in the Sinai.

A number of cars in the Sinai are filled by Hamas with weapons smuggled [from Gaza to Egypt] through the tunnels: mortars, RPGs, and packages of homemade explosives, such as those used in the bombing of Alexandria, in addition to a number of hand grenades, and these are used against the security forces and supporting the Egyptian Sinai Bedouin in the eradication of the ruling system in Egypt.

A large amount of Hamas members in civilian clothes have already passed through the Rafah crossing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday through to Cairo, with the help of bribed state security officers, where they seek cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to attack the Egyptian prisons, where there are Hamas prisoners. Hamas is a natural extension of the Muslim Brotherhood.

There is talk about an escape of prisoners, including Ayman Nofal [jailed by Egypt in 2008] and others, and Hamas expects to return its prisoners to the Gaza Strip by Monday.

Aa state of overwhelming joy prevails in the ranks of Hamas from the influx of news from Egypt along with cheers and fireworks about the success of its own power to break points of the Egyptian security and access to the heart of Cairo. Hamas considers events in Cairo to end the rule of President Mubarak of Egypt, which they describe as a traitor and they wish the fall of the corrupt system in order for the Brotherhood to ascend to power.

It is worth mentioning the escape of the Palestinian King of Tunnels, nicknamed The Mouse, from the prison of Al-Arish, and his escape to Gaza after bloody battles fought by the Special Unit of the Qassam Brigades in collaboration with the Bedouins of the Sinai against the security forces of Egypt. In addition the al-Qassam Brigades kidnapped 3 Egyptian soldiers who seem to have been freed at the border of the city of Rafah.

Related, from Ma'an:
Palestinian sources say 12 people including Bedouins and Egyptian police officers were killed Saturday in clashes in the Sinai Peninsula, in what appeared to be an attempt by tribes in the region to take control of the swath of land south of the Egypt-Gaza border.

Gunshots were heard in the Egyptian city of Rafah as Bedouins attempted to occupy the border with Israel and the Gaza Strip. Rocket-propelled Grenades were fired at Egyptian soldiers, witnesses said, causing the near-total destruction of one home near the border area, and damage to a sector of the Gaza-Egypt border fence.

Gaza government police were said to have fixed the breach immediately, while eyewitnesses said police forces deployed across the border area on the Gaza side, in an apparent attempt to prevent Gaza residents from entering Egypt.

Armed groups attacked Egyptian police in the cities of Rafah and Sheikh Zweid, set fire to one police station and were behind the slaying of one officer identified as 36-year-old Jum’a Hamid after he was abducted along with two others, security sources said.

Security officials also said Bedouins were behind an earlier attack on an Egyptian security checkpoint, where four officers were killed and four others injured. All were transported to hospital in Al-Arish. Four banks and several state buildings were also reportedly set ablaze and looted.
The two stories are not inconsistent.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

  • Thursday, November 11, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Time:
The Nov. 3 assassination of Mohammad Namnam looked pretty much exactly like the fiery deaths of a lot of other Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip over the years. He was making his way in broad daylight through the tattered streets of Gaza City when his sedan turned into a fireball. The missile arrived from an Israeli helicopter hovering so far away that onlookers at first thought the explosion was a car bomb.

The death was not routine, however. Israel has refrained for months from assassination by missile, just as Hamas, the fundamentalist militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, has held back from launching homemade rockets into Israel. And the dead man was a senior operative not of Hamas but of another, more extreme militia called the Army of Islam. Namnam, a senior commander of the group some analysts describe as linked to al-Qaeda, was tracked and killed after Israeli security operatives learned that he was preparing a terror attack on U.S. forces stationed in the Sinai Desert not far from coastal Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas.

But the most striking element of the operation was the source of the tip: Egyptian intelligence gleaned news of the plot from Army of Islam operatives captured earlier in the Sinai. Egyptian security forces work to interdict arms and explosives on smuggling routes that run across the vast expanse from Sudan to Gaza. But sharing the intelligence on Namnam with their Israeli counterparts marked a level of Egyptian cooperation not seen by the Jewish state in years. "Egypt is helping much more," a security source in the region tells TIME.

The Army of Islam plot was aimed at the northern base, called El Gorah, about a dozen miles west of Gaza, apparently hoping to kill Americans. U.S. forces account for almost 700 of the approximately 1,600 military personnel assigned to the Multnational Force and Observers (MFO). Normand St. Pierre, head of the MFO office in Cairo, says Israel and Egypt share responsibility for the forces' security. "The relationship between the countries is really up to them, and I think they know things work better when they cooperate," St. Pierre told TIME, adding that he knew of no specific threat to El Gorah.
There has always been a huge disconnect between how Egypt acts towards Israel in public and in private. Some of the low-key ties are mandated by the peace agreement and by trying to please the US, but even Egypt knows that Israel is a reliable partner for Egypt's security.

(h/t t34zakat)

Friday, October 29, 2010

  • Friday, October 29, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Egyptian security authorities arrested 14 men from the city of Damietta last Tuesday, saying that they formed a terrorist cell called "Soldiers of Allah," and seized weapons and explosives, saying they 'were planned to be used in terrorist attacks'.

The group held meetings in the home of one of their leaders, 35-year old Subhi Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who is a pharmacist. They were planning to carry out terrorist operations against a number of commercial ships in the port of Damietta. Police secretly videotaped recorded a number of these meetings.

Police raided the home of the leader of the cell, and arrested its members, and seized weapons and explosives and a variety of books containing information on the manufacture of grenades, time-bombs and remote-controlled bombs, as well as cash and mobile phones.

The main target was to be U.S. ships in the port of Damietta.

Monday, October 18, 2010

  • Monday, October 18, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestine Press Agency reports that Egyptian officials have again found a cache of weapons and explosives in Rafah, on their way to Gaza.

This cache included 150 kilograms TNT, and body armor, grenades, land mines machine guns and ammunition.

Egyptian authorities have found dozens of such caches over the past couple of years.

People who complain about Israel's limits on goods to Gaza - like the "Elders" who visited Gaza yesterday - never note these events as they castigate Israel.

Some of the weapons do get through, of course. A hand grenade was found in a Rafah school playground yesterday. Sounds like there are enough weapons in Gaza that people can just accidentally misplace them. (Gaza officials, predictably, say that the grenade was left over from "a previous Israeli invasion.")

Saturday, October 16, 2010

  • Saturday, October 16, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Viva Palestina convoy has been delayed again, this time because of bad weather. It is supposed to sail from the Syrian port of Latakia to Egypt's El Arish on Monday. (Iranian media says that it expects that Israel would go into Egyptian territory to stop the aid from getting to Gaza. Really.)

Jimmy Carter and the other "Elders" - present company excluded - have entered Gaza for a day of hobnobbing with Hamas terrorist leaders in the interests of "fact finding."

Three people came up to Ayman Hamdan's home near Nablus in a village called Qusra overnight. He owns several agricultural projects. Two cars belonging to his business were torched, with the words "Death to you" scrawled on his steps. He caught it on videotape. While this sounds like the work of disgruntled employees, Hamdan is certain that they were Jewish settlers. This way he gets into the headlines and might even get compensation!

A large weapons and explosives cache were discovered in Southern Lebanon. By UNIFIL? Of course not - how often do they find any weapons or explosives that are buried under their feet by the ton? No, a bulldozer accidentally uncovered the cache.

Finally, a chimpanzee escaped from a Gaza zoo and entered a lecture hall at Al Quds University, where he sat and listened. Just more proof that those Jews, who excel at academics, are really the sons of apes.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

  • Sunday, September 26, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Ma'an:
Egyptian security forces seized a cache of explosives in the Sinai Pensinsula on Sunday, security sources said.

...[O]fficers uncovered a weapons depot containing half a ton of TNT explosives and anti-aircraft shells. The ammunition was packaged in bags ready to be smuggled through underground tunnels into Gaza, sources said.
Given the number of caches Egypt has found, how many do you think they miss?

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

  • Wednesday, September 22, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

  • Tuesday, September 07, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Ma'an:
Egyptian police took control of nine weapons caches across the Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, nearly a week after discovering three stores in the same area.

All of the stores, officials said, were ready to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip.

Several types of weaponry were discovered in the hideouts, located in northern and central Sinai neighborhoods as well as the southern border city of Rafah and the port city of Al-Arish, police told Ma'an.

Egyptian forces said they found machine guns, ammunition, over 170 anti-aircraft shells, 90 artillery shells, 200 bullets of varying sizes and anti-tank landmines. Additionally, 100 kilograms of TNT explosives were seized by Egyptian security from a hideout inside a cemetery in Rafah.
The real question is - how many of these caches are making it through?

The supposedly pacifist "Free Gaza" movement obviously has no problem with weapons smuggling. Their entire goal is to allow Hamastan to be considered a sovereign entity with full rights to bring in all the weapons they want. As they write:
[T]hey are not terrorist as promulgated by the colonial rhetoric; they are freedom fighters who want their legitimate rights...
And the unfortunate fact is that there is very little daylight between the mainstream media position and that of Free Gaza. Which is why you will never, ever see any wire service or major newspaper refer to Hamas' weapons smuggling as an "obstacle to peace."

Monday, August 30, 2010

  • Monday, August 30, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
Over the weekend, Egyptian security forces discovered five separate caches of weapons, explosives and ammunition that were on their way to Gaza.

110 anti-aircraft missiles were found in one area, and 60 more in another. A third contained 100 kg of explosives. The others had ammunition, more explosives and weapons.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

  • Wednesday, July 21, 2010
  • Elder of Ziyon
For years, the Western media has been enamored with Gaza's tunnel industry. Reporters were keen to be lowered into the tunnels, lionizing the industry to sometimes outrageous degrees. 

The articles barely mentioned the fact that Hamas smuggled weapons as well through the tunnels. Even when Egypt would confiscate large caches of weapons in Rafah meant to be shot at Israelis, or when Hamas themselves bragged about the amount of weaponry and explosives they managed to bring through the tunnels, the mainstream media steadfastly downplayed that aspect of the industry and instead romanticized it.

The media also loved to characterize the smugglers as heroes of Arab capitalism, and ignored the fact that Hamas had de facto control over the tunnels and taxed them for its revenue - revenue that went towards more weapons, as Gaza's infrastructure was being paid for by clueless Westerners.

It looks like the love affair between the media and the smugglers is not over yet.

Now that Gaza is awash in consumer goods from Israel (that the media tried to downplay as well,) the new stories are about how horrible this development is - to the smugglers.

One very telling example comes from The Atlantic:

[A]t the Egyptian border, in the heart of Gaza's tunnel industry, there's little if any rejoicing at the blockade's dismantlement. As Israeli consumer goods saturate Gaza's markets, the tunnels have lost their clientele. Smugglers understand that their days are numbered, but there's nothing to replace the jobs the industry provided.

"Work has run dry. Every day is getting worse and worse. It's the end of the tunnel period," says Abu Mohammad, a tunnel owner who has made millions from the industry. "It's not just me suffering. It's everyone in this business. ... No one knows what will happen to us."

The resilient industry survived Israeli bombings, Egyptian gassing, and flooding. Days after the end of Israel's 22-day offensive in January 2009, activity in the tunnel zone was frenzied--generators hummed, pulleys screeched and loading trucks banged. Most recently, smugglers drilled through the steel subterranean wall Egypt began to construct last December.

Today, though, the tunnel district is eerily silent. Market traders have either bought Israeli or stalled orders in anticipation of new goods from the Jewish state. An estimated 10 percent of the tunnels are still operating, but even those work sporadically.

Most tunnels are concentrated about half a mile from the Egyptian border, in an area five miles long and less than two miles wide. They open up in neat rows, shaded by white and black plastic tents.

Abu Saber's tunnel is at the front line, closest to the Egyptian border. Rolls of smuggled iron sheet are stacked neatly at the passageway's entrance. The haul is Saber's first shipment in 10 days.

The sandy floor of his tunnel slopes downward, easing into the ground. Buttressed inside by iron walls, the tunnel is about five feet wide and high enough to walk only slightly hunched. Inside, it's muggy and dank, pungent with the smell of earth and human sweat.

Before the blockade was eased, Saber's tunnel, like many others, operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week and employed 10-12 people for each 12-hour shift, carting everything from chocolate to refrigerators. Now, Saber says, he's barely making enough hauling iron, steel, and ceramics--products that remain embargoed. And even profits on those have dropped dramatically.

"Before one ton of iron sold for $400 [U.S.], now it goes for between $150 and $200. These prices are not good enough for labor and expenses," Abu Saber laments.
How many ways can a single article make smugglers sound heroic? Gaza's economy has improved dramatically in a few short weeks, people who hate Israel are happily buying Israeli items - and the Atlantic spends 12 paragraphs talking about how the media's heroes are coping at the loss of their illicit businesses.

This is just a further example of how much the mainstream media is at the mercy of memes. Once a narrative is established, reporters act like sheep in following and expanding it - but rarely challenging it. This is why the stories out of Gaza all the same - poor Palestinian Arabs, heroic smugglers of consumer goods, Israel blockading essential goods, a looming humanitarian crisis.

Almost invisible are the stories about the upper and middle class Gazans, going to spas and even building mansions, eating out and working out and playing. Even rarer are the stories of Hamas' intimidation of ordinary Gazans, increasing religious legislation in the sector, tortures and killings.

The journalists are happy to follow but loathe to challenge. Hamas may be threatening and intimidating them but it doesn't take much to make journalists toe the line.

If you don't believe me, just try to find an article by a journalist that tried to find any weapons smuggling tunnels in Gaza. You won't. Grad missiles and anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons just magically appear in Gaza - but from reading the media you just couldn't figure out how.

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