As Israeli troops battled Palestinian gunmen during Operation Cast Lead in an attempt to end the threat posed against southern Israel, IAF warplanes were conducting a similar mission far from the border with the Gaza Strip, a CBS report revealed yesterday. According to the report, unidentified American officials told the station that in January, Israeli planes bombed a convoy of trucks carrying arms destined for Hamas through Sudan. “Israeli intelligence is said to have discovered that weapons were being trucked through Sudan, heading north toward Egypt, whereupon they would cross the Sinai Desert and be smuggled into Hamas-held territory in Gaza,” the sources told CBS. “Israeli aircraft carried out the attack”.
The IDF has yet to confirm or deny the report.
The attack reportedly killed 39 people and destroyed 17 trucks. Although Sudan has yet to officially blame – or even acknowledge – the strike, Sudanese State Minister for Highways Mabrouk Mubarak Saleem was quoted in the Sudanese Tribune this week as saying that a “major power bombed small trucks carrying arms, burning all of them.” He added that the strike killed “Sudanese, Eritreans and Ethiopians, and injured others.”
Since the end of the military operation in Gaza, Israel has been working with the its partners in the international community to strengthen measures to prevent weapons from continuing to flow into the Gaza Strip.
Two weeks ago, Israel welcomed an agreement by the US, Canada and seven European states to coordinate anti-smuggling efforts.
The US, Britain, Norway, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark agreed that “noncoercive” methods would be used to clamp down on the arms flow. Such methods would utilize diplomatic, military, intelligence and law enforcement resources in the fight.
{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel/JPost Report}
