Hizbullah is supplying long-range missiles to Hamas even as Israel’s Iron Dome system blows them up after launching, a Lebanese newspaper claims with pride. The claim is unsubstatiated by other sources, but if true, implies the compliance of Egypt.
The Al-Ahkbar website and newspaper, which previously published WikiLeaks material before they were released, claimed that Israel has not shut down the supply route of missiles for Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.
“A considerable amount of long-range missiles from Hizbullah” has reached Gaza terrorists in the past several days, according to Al-Akhbar.
Hizbullah sources sad they are focusing on transporting large quantities of long-range missiles, many of which they claim to have reached Gaza during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense.
It said that Iranian Revolutionary Guard units specializing in smuggling weapons from Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Sudan, and other countries are on “high alert.”
The weapons smuggling route begins in Iranian or Syrian ports, and then continues to Sudan and the Sinai Peninsula. Hundreds of smuggling tunnels at the Gaza-Egyptian border enable easy smuggling of missiles into Gaza.
Israel left the Philadelphia Corridor on the Gaza-Egyptian border, where the tunnels begin, as part of the “disengagement” from Gaza. This aroused fierce dispute in Israel at the time, with those opposing the move saying, as has since been proven true, that Egypt would not stop the weapons smuggling.
The ceasefire that Israel accepted after the Operation Cast Lead in January 2006 was to be accompanied with monitoring systems to prevent smuggling, but the United States and European Union did not fulfill their promises. Israeli military officials have said that Hamas has exploited the opportunity to stockpile an arsenal of weapons, which include medium range Fajr missiles that can reach Tel Aviv, as well as anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
The Israel bombing of Fajr missile storage sites has inflicted damage on the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, and Al-Akhbar wrote, “Resistance factions are currently assessing the damage inflicted on the long-range missile arsenals Israel claims to have destroyed in the raids following the assassination of Hamas military chief Ahmad al-Jaabari.”
It added that a “large number of ‘strategic’ arsenals are still safe.”
Hizbullah’s increased ability to supply arms is a result of the establishment of the special smuggling unit of the Guards, according to the newspaper.
It said that Egyptian and Iranian governments have been an obstacle to the smuggling operations, but Hizbullah worked out a communications channel between the Guards, the Syrian army, Hizbullah and Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.
“Since 2005, the weapons transfer units have succeeded in sending numerous types of light and medium weapons, mortars, medium and long-range missiles, as well as several types of ammunition and materials that can be used to manufacture rockets and bombs,” Al-Akbar reported. In the same year, the Israeli government removed all soldiers and military posts from Gaza following the expulsion of more than 9,000 Jews from their homes, a move that gave Gaza terrorists a free hand to operate the weapons supply system.
