Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — The Hamas regime and its Palestinian militia allies were
said to have ordered huge amounts of weapons from Libya.

Egyptian officials said security forces have captured a convoy that
contained thousands of munitions and missiles bound for the Gaza Strip
via the Sinai Peninsula.

The officials said the seizure was the largest since the revolt against the late Libyan Col. Moammar Gadhafi in March 2011.

“Most of the weapons were ordered by Gaza, with the others to be kept by Sinai Bedouins,” an official said.

On May 10, Egyptian security forces tracked and captured the convoy that left Libya and reached near the Mediterranean resort of Marsa Matrouh. Officials said the three-vehicle convoy contained 10,000 artillery shells, 40 surface-to-surface Katyusha-class rockets, 17 rocket-propelled grenade systems and an unspecified number of 120 mm mortars.

“We are talking about the highest-quality weapons that are not used
against police forces,” an Egyptian source told the official Middle East
News Agency. “This attests to preparations for battle with the Egyptian
Army.”

The members of the convoy, all of whom were identified as Bedouins, did
not resist the Egyptian troops. Officials said three Bedouins were arrested,
two of them known smugglers from Rafah, a town divided between the Gaza
Strip and Sinai.

Officials said Egypt has bolstered security along the border with Libya
amid the assessment that Iran was financing arms shipments to the Gaza
Strip. They said the post-Gadhafi government in Tripoli has been unable to
stop the massive smuggling of weapons into Egypt.

“The border has long been infiltrated by migrants on both sides, but now
it is being used for weapons,” the official said.

  Egypt seizes Libyan arms, Katyusha-class rockets, missiles bound for Gaza, Moammar Gadhafi, Rafah, resort of Marsa Matrouh, RPGs, Sinai Bedouins, Sinai Peninsula smuggling