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In a Nov. 7 letter to the U.S. Senate, Steinitz detailed Egypt's help to
the Hamas military. Steinitz, the ranking opposition member in the Knesset
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that in late September 100 Hamas
fighters returned from training in Iran, and were allowed to enter Egypt on
their way to the Gaza Strip.
"Egypt permits their transit to Teheran, where they are trained by the
IRGC in a wide array of terrorist activities, like the production of rockets
and road-side bombs, as well as in basic military training," Steinitz said
in a letter to Sen. John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota.
Congress has been mulling legislation that would slash $200 million of
U.S. military aid to Egypt unless the regime of President Hosni Mubarak
improves security cooperation with Israel. Egypt, which receives $1.3
billion in annual U.S. military aid, has insisted that it was blocking Hamas
weapons smuggling and movements along the Sinai-Gaza border.
The Bush administration has opposed the congressional effort against
Egypt. Instead, the State Department has sought to increase Egypt's military
presence along the Sinai-Gaza border, a move opposed by Israel. So far, at
least 750 Egyptian troops patrol the 14-kilometer Sinai-Gaza border.
"Egypt's problem is not the number of soldiers but the lack of
motivation," a senior Israeli official said.
Israeli officials said Egyptian commanders were turning a blind eye to
massive weapons smuggling that moved through tunnels in the border town of
Rafah into the southern Gaza Strip. The officials said Israel has presented
evidence of collaboration between Egyptian forces and the Palestinians,
which they asserted facilitated the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June
2007.
In October, Steinitz led a delegation of Israeli parliamentarians in
discussions with Senate and House members regarding Iran and Egypt. The
members of Congress requested details of the expansion of weapons smuggling
from Egypt to the Gaza Strip.
In his letter, Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset Subcommittee on Defense
Readiness and Combating Terrorism, said Israeli intelligence has concluded
that the Gaza Strip was receiving a huge amount of missiles, rockets and
rifles from Egypt. He said 20,000 rifles, 6,000 anti-tank missiles -- mainly
rocket-propelled grenade systems -- 100 tons of explosives, and "several
dozens of Katyusha rockets as well as shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles"
were flowing into the Gaza Strip annually.
Steinitz said Egypt has ignored the flow of weapons smugglers through
the eastern Sinai. He said the 14-kilometer Sinai-Gaza border could be
easily sealed.
"All they have to do for this purpose is to erect a number of roadblocks
along the very few roads that run from mainland Egypt to the Gaza region, in
order to intercept heavily loaded trucks carrying hundreds of rifles and
missiles from reaching the border," Steinitz said. "Alternatively, they can
declare the border area a closed military zone, with a depth of 2-3 miles
into the interior of Sinai, and prevent any movement in it. Since the entire
length of the Egyptian-Gaza border is less then nine miles, the area
affected will be equivalent in size to a military airbase."
The letter contrasted Egyptian efforts to those of Jordan. Steinitz said
Jordan has blocked most weapons and other smuggling to Islamic insurgents in
the West Bank. He said Jordanian authorities have also smashed smuggling
rings throughout the kingdom.
"After several years of Israeli and American protests, it seems hard to
avoid the following conclusion: as long as Egypt is not required to pay a
real price for this behavior, weapons and financial aid will continue to
flow into the hands of Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza," the letter
said.
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