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Monday, April 13, 2009

Bedouin tribes said to be replenishing Hamas rocket aresenal

CAIRO — Palestinian militias have ordered short-range missiles from neighboring Egypt to replace those fired against Israel in last year's war.   

Egyptian security sources said Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip have ordered missiles and rockets from Bedouins in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The sources said the militias ordered the weapons in 2009 in wake of the Israel war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"There was a network that obtained the material, made the rockets and smuggled them through the tunnels to Gaza," a security source said.

One Bedouin rocket production cell was said to have comprised about 20 people and was fbased in the eastern Sinai town of Sheik Zuwayed. On April 10, 15 Bedouins were detained in a sweep by Egyptian security forces near the divided city of Rafah.

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The sources said the cell operated a workshop in Sheik Zuwayed outside Rafah. They said security forces seized the casing of 60 short-range rockets.

Hamas was not said to have ordered the rockets from the Bedouin production network. The sources said Hamas appeared to be producing a sufficient number of Kassam-class, short-range missiles and was focusing on the acquisition of longer-range weapons from Iran and Hizbullah. On April 10, Hizbullah reported the arrest of one of its operatives in Egypt.

Several Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip have been engaged in missile and rocket attacks against Israel. They included the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad, Popular Resistance Committees and Fatah.

Egyptian security forces have been tracking suspected Bedouin smugglers and rocket production cells in Sinai. On April 11, police and Bedouins engaged in a gun battle, and one person was killed near El Arish.

The sources said the shootout came amid a chase of a truck suspected of transporting weapons to the Gaza Strip. The truck was searched after the shootout, and security forces found ammunition.

For its part, Hamas has used Egypt to smuggle millions of dollars in cash from Iran and Gulf Arab states. Egyptian security forces have been tracking Hamas couriers both in Cairo and Sinai.



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