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Fall of Mubarak Allows Terror Groups to Smuggle Huge Quantities of Arms into Gaza

(Ynet News) Ron Ben-Yishai - The immediate beneficiaries of the "Arab Spring" are Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. After the removal of Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood is no longer an underground movement and has become an important, influential political element. The group's influence prompted Egypt's government to completely halt construction of the underground metal obstacle built with American assistance in a bid to block smuggling tunnels. The Egyptian regime has virtually suspended its battle against smuggling into Gaza. Simultaneously, Egyptian security forces preoccupied with domestic developments completely lost their hold on the Sinai Peninsula. Some 300,000 Bedouins belonging to four or five large tribes are now Sinai's true rulers. These tribes' main income is based on smuggling to Gaza. As result, arms shipments have been surging in recent months: Everything that has been sent by the Iranians in recent years and was hidden by the Bedouins has flowed freely into Gaza in the past five months. Meanwhile, new shipments arrived and were transferred to Hamas and Islamic Jihad without delay. Consequently, terror groups in Gaza doubled their rocket arsenals. Today, they possess some 10,000 rockets, a number similar to the Hizbullah arsenal in the Second Lebanon War. Gaza terror groups hold thousands of mid-range Grad rockets, and a few heavy Fajr rockets that have a range of some 40 miles and can reach just south of Tel Aviv.
2011-07-22 00:00:00
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