[Ha'aretz] Gideon Alon - Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) Director Yuval Diskin warned the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday that the Sinai Peninsula is becoming a haven for arms smugglers and is being used as a terrorist base. "If we don't move to counter this smuggling, it will continue and create a situation in Gaza similar to the one in southern Lebanon," Diskin said. He said that Hamas wants to adopt the model used by Hizballah in Lebanon and is making every effort to create a balance of deterrence against Israel. Since Israel transferred control of the Egypt-Gaza border to Egypt a year ago, large amounts of weaponry have been taken into Gaza from Sinai. He listed as examples some 15,000 light weapons and four million rounds of ammunition, guns, rockets, dozens of anti-tank missiles and launchers, 15 tons of explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and Katyusha rockets with a 20km range. "It is possible to take anything across apart from tanks and planes," he concluded.
2006-08-30 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive