[Ha'aretz] Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff - There are growing concerns in the Israel Defense Forces that Hamas and other militant organizations may be planning to attack one of the kibbutzim close to the border with Gaza using a tunnel, military sources said Thursday. Intelligence and IDF sources say the Hamas leadership is troubled by the absence of an effective response to the continued Israeli raids in Gaza that have killed dozens of armed militants during the past three months. According to Southern Command, at least ten tunnels have been dug close to the fence separating Gaza from Israel, for the purpose of being used in a raid. The extent of the smuggling of arms and explosives from Egypt into Gaza is worse than originally estimated, IDF sources said Thursday. Dozens of tunnels have been used for uninterrupted smuggling for the past year. In an August 2005 agreement, Egypt guaranteed that it had "practical and real capabilities of ensuring that the smuggling does not take place."
2006-10-20 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive